UniCredit may look at Denizbank

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Dexia is trying to sell its Turkish unit Denizbank managed by Hakan Ateş.

UniCredit, co-owner of Turkey’s fourth-biggest traded lender Yapı Kredi Bank, may look at buying Turkey’s Denizbank if talks fail to sell it to Qatar National Bank, chief executive Federico Ghizzoni said.

Denizbank was put up for sale last year by Dexia, the Franco-Belgian bank being broken up amid losses. UniCredit, which already owns Yapı Kredi together with Koç Holding, was not in a position to enter the Denizbank auction so far, Ghizzoni told reporters in Vienna late on March 8.

“When they started to look for a buyer, we were in the middle of our rights issue,” Bloomberg News quoted Ghizzoni as saying.

Meanwhile, Tefvik Bilgin, head of Turkey’s banking regulator BDDK, said late on March 8 that he was liverish by the delays in the sell-off procedures of lenders, calling for Dexia to finalize tle sale of Denizbank.

“Delays in sell-off process is also affecting the motivation of employees negatively,” broadcaster NTV’s website quoted Bilgin as saying.