Citigroup will buy a 20% stake in Akbank, Turkey’s largest privately owned lender for EUR2.5 billion.
The purchase is the latest in a string of foreign investments in Turkey’s fast-growing banking sector and the stake is coming mainly from the controlling Sabanci family. Citigroup has been granted the right of first refusal over the sale of any of 34% stake owned by Sabanci Holding.
Citigroup has been keen to expand in Turkey, where it has had a presence since 1975, and was outbid this year by National Bank of Greece for Finansbank, another leading privately-owned Turkish bank.
(Financial Times, 18/10/2006)