A $249 billion Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund (ADQ) is in talks to buy Turkish lender Odeabank, owned by Lebanon’s Bank Audi, people with knowledge of the matter have told Bloomberg.
Discussions between ADQ and Bank Audi have been ongoing over the past few months, they said.
No final decisions have been made and there’s no certainty that ADQ will ultimately buy the bank, the people said.
Odeabank is the 11th largest lender by assets, which stood at TRY 87.3bn as of end-June, according to data from the Banks’ Association of Turkey. It has 41 branches and around 1,200 employees.
Bank Audi is its largest shareholder in Odeabank with a 76.4% stake.
In 2012, Lebanon’s largest lender Bank Audi secured the final approval from the BDDK to launch operations of its unit Odea Bank, becoming the first bank to get banking licence in Turkey after 12 years.
In 2016, the World Bank's IFC, the IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund (FIG Fund) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) became shareholders of Odeabank after participating in the bank's capital increase.
Currently, the EBRD has a 8% stake in Odeabank while the IFC controls a 6% and the FIG Fund holds a 3%.
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