Finansbank AS, owned by National Bank of Greece SA (NBG), will probably be a target for Qatar National Bank SAQ as the Middle East’s biggest lender studies buying one of Turkey’s top 10 banks, analysts say.
“QNB wants a controlling stake in Turkey and there’s no other bank than Finansbank at the moment where it could get that,” Ovunc Gursoy, analyst at Yapi Kredi Yatirim Menkul Degerler AS, the Istanbul broker of Yapi & Kredi Bank AS, a unit of Italy’s UniCredit SpA, said by telephone yesterday. “NBG could sell a majority stake due to its capital needs.”
Greek banks face shortfalls in capital after sustaining losses on their holdings of government bonds in the country’s debt swap, the biggest sovereign restructuring in history.
NBG might sell a minority stake in Finansbank to help strengthen its capital position, chief executive Apostolos Tamvakakis said in April.
NBG’s investor relations department in Athens declined to comment on any plan to sell Finansbank in an e-mailed response to questions.
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