Istanbul’s lavish ‘Crystal Tower’ sold to Greek bank

ISTANBUL

The 170-meters high Crystal Tower, located in Istanbul's Levent district, has a 60,000 m2 area of usage. HÜRRİYET photo

The National Bank of Greece (NBG), which owns Finansbank in Turkey, bought a 40-story office tower in central Istanbul for $303 million, daily Hürriyet has reported March 18.

The 170-meters high Crystal Tower was sold by Koru Property Investments, a subsidiary of Soyak Group in Turkey. The building, located in Istanbul's Levent district, has a 60,000 m2 area of usage.

The deal is reported to be one of the largest transactions in the Turkish commercial property market in recent years. The NBG is expected to use the tower as the new head office of Finansbank.

The operations in Greece yield 50 percent of the NBG’s pretax pre-provision profits are, complemented by 35 percent from Turkey and 15 percent from Southeastern Europe, according to figures released by the Greek company.

The total assets of Soyak Group, which operates in the real estate, energy, cement and casting sectors in Turkey, stood at $1.578 million in 2012.