Acquisition talks with Citi on way: Denizbank

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Turkey’s Denizbank told the Istanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) March.11 that talks with Citigroup over the acquisition of its consumer banking unit in Turkey continue.

Sources told Reuters on March 8 that Citigroup was in exclusive talks with Denizbank over the sale of the unit.

Denizbank, one of Turkey’s top 10 lenders by assets, was acquired last year by Russia’s Sberbank. In addition to Denizbank three more banks have been shortlisted in the sale of Citigroup’s retail banking business in Turkey and the deal is expected to close in late March or April, banking sources had told Reuters before. Turkey’s Garanti Bank, Fibabanka, Denizbank and Odeabank, the Turkish unit of Lebanon’s Audi Bank, were on the shortlist and their final bids had been placed, two sources said.

“The process will finish latest by the end of March, beginning of April,” one source said. Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank, said early in December it would cut 11,000 jobs worldwide to save as much as $1.1 billion a year and that the plan included selling or cutting back consumer operations in countries including Turkey.