State-owned Kuwait Investment Authority is in early-stage talks to invest in a top-tier Turkish bank, Managing Director Bader Al-Sa'ad told Reuters on April 05.
KIA, which invests surplus oil revenue overseas and manages assets estimated at more than $100 billion, has put Turkey on a list of possible investment targets along with China, India and Egypt. Ankara, meanwhile, has been carefully courting Gulf investment and increased the flow of oil dollars into Turkey. "We are in primary talks, the early stage it's a top-tier bank," Sa'ad said on the sidelines of a conference in Istanbul.
He said any deal would be sizeable. "We can't go to the small-sized banks, because we have a size constraint," he said.
"Any transaction globally, not only in Turkey, we don't like the small size deals because it doesn't move the needle with us. It has to be $250 (million)-plus," Sa'ad said.
Any purchase would follow a series of foreign acquisitions that have shaken European Union candidate Turkey's competitive banking sector.
TURKEY'S TOP-TIER LISTED BANKS ARE:
Is Bank which has said it is not looking for a partner; Akbank, in which Citigroup has a stake; Garanti Bank, partly held by GE Capital; and Vakifbank, which is part-owned by state foundations.
Islamic lender Turkiye Finans - the biggest of Turkey's Sharia-compliant banks by assets but small compared to the mainstream lenders - is looking for a partner. But Sa'ad declined to comment on whether KIA was looking at an Islamic or conventional bank.
Ankara plans to partly privatise Halkbank with an initial public offering in the first half, after ditching plans for a block sale, and has said it will also sell larger Ziraat Bank. Oyakbank, ranked 10th according to third quarter data, has also said it is looking for a partner.
Along with Turkey, KIA's target countries are China, Pakistan, India, South Korea, Egypt and Morocco, Sa'ad said. It recently bought a huge and high-profile shopping centre in central Istanbul and is still interested in Turkey's booming real estate sector.
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