Posted by meb at July 4th, 2008
Garanti Bank has been chosen as Turkey’s best bank by Euromoney magazine, receiving the Euromoney Award for Excellence for the ninth time.
In a statement on Thursday, the bank said the award came as a result of the sustained growth rates, success in delivering loans, rapid spread of branches, leading role in the mortgage market, customer-oriented service mentality and the international confidence in (more…)
Posted by meb at June 11th, 2008
Taib Bank BSC, the Bahrain-based investment bank controlled by Dubai’s ruling sheikh, said its Turkish unit bought Istanbul-based corporate finance advisors PDF. Taib Yatırım, the brokerage unit of Taib YatırımBank, bought PDF in cash and shares to expand its investment banking services in Turkey, (more…)
Posted by meb at June 10th, 2008
While household debt in Turkey has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, the ratio of debt to total disposable income is still in the low figures, the latest data show.
According to the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), debt shot up to 29.5 percent of total income last year, from 7.5 percent in 2003. In most Western countries, however, households are facing worse challenges than those in Turkey, with the number of bankruptcies in Western countries skyrocketing. In Canada for example, many aren’t keeping their heads above water, with total household debt at a record $1.1 trillion and consumers owing 124 percent of their real disposable income. In the US, the figure is equally worrisome: With consumer credit reaching $2.56 trillion in April, US household debt ballooned to 136 percent of disposable income last year, according to the Federal Reserve. (more…)
Posted by meb at June 8th, 2008
Turkey’s Fiba Holding, which sold 46 percent shares in Finansbank for $2.76 billion to the National Bank of Greece (NBG) in 2006, used the money obtained from the sale to invest in several sectors, including energy, retail and shipbuilding, according to the firm’s owner.
“We have used a portion of the money in energy, retail and shipbuilding investments. We have also added capital to the banks abroad. All money is spent now,” Hüsnü Özyeğin, owner of Fiba Group, said during the opening ceremony of a cinema theater in Gaziantep last week. (more…)
Posted by meb at June 6th, 2008
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has launched talks with a bank in Turkey over entering the Turkish market, QIB’s CEO has stated.
CEO Salah al-Jaidah told the Financial Times that QIB is now looking to acquire an institution in Turkey in an effort to take advantage of opportunities for growth there and across Central Asia, while also considering Egypt as a base for North Africa. The bank has already signed a memorandum of understanding for a new bank in Kazakhstan. (more…)
Posted by meb at May 20th, 2008
Nearly two decades after it became a member, Turkey expects to finally cash in from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD – but that cash may be about to disappear.
The EBRD, founded in 1991 with the purpose of supporting former Warsaw Pact countries in nurturing “a new private sector,” prepares to add Turkey in its list of investment countries, but the future of the London-based organization, which is currently holding its annual meeting in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, looks cloudy. In a similar process endured by bodies “inspired” by the Cold War or its aftermath, the EBRD is deep in discussions about what course it should take in the future. (more…)
Posted by meb at May 16th, 2008
Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) President Ahmet Ertürk said yesterday the fund has preliminary plans to announce the conditions, price and schedule for the sale of Adabank next week.
Responding to questions from the press after giving a speech at the first KPMG Turkey Financial Risk Management Conference in İstanbul, Ertürk said the TMSF is in the final preparatory phase for the Adabank sale as there remain no further legal obstacles after courts rejected all requests for a stay of execution on the sale. The TMSF had confiscated Adabank and İmar Bankası in 2003 to cover the losses that the former owners, the Uzan family, had imposed upon the state from their mismanagement of the banks. “We don’t want Adabank to stay in the system as a small bank, and we want a quick solution,” Ertürk said, noting that there will be sufficient demand for Adabank, including from certain foreign banks. (more…)
Posted by meb at May 13th, 2008
Akbank, the country’s biggest lender by market value, benefited from the “domestic capital” criterion introduced by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) after having sold Oyakbank to the Netherlands-based ING Bank.
Around 60 percent of all institutions affiliated with the TSK decided to break ties with Dutch ING, and agreed with new banks, among which Akbank has obtained the lion’s share, according to officials from Akbank, which closed the first quarter of the year with a net profit of YTL 720 million. (more…)
