Emirates NBD to buy Turkey's Denizbank for $3.2 bln

Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, has agreed to buy Turkish lender Denizbank for $3.19 billion (14.6 billion liras) from Russia’s Sberbank, it said on Tuesday.

The deal will help Emirates NBD establish itself as a leading bank in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, vice chairman of Emirates NBD.

In January, the bank said it had started initial strategic talks with Sberbank about a possible purchase of the Russian lender’s stake in Denizbank, which is the fifth largest private bank in Turkey.

The Dubai-based lender will achieve "meaningful diversification" of its operations, both in new countries and in a broad range of business segments, Al Qassim noted.

The transaction is expected to be accretive to shareholders in the first year, said Emirates NBD chief executive officer Shayne Nelson.

The closing of the deal is subject to regulatory approvals in Turkey, Russia, the UAE and other relevant jurisdictions, where Denizbank operates.

Emirates NBD will pay interest on the consideration for the period between Oct. 31, 2017 and the transaction’s closing date, expected later in the year, the statement added.

Denizbank has assets of 169.4 billion liras and operates 751 branches including 43 outside Turkey.

Emirates NBD was trading at AED 10.55, up 7.4 percent, on the Dubai Financial Market at 11.25 am local UAE time.