Turkey’s Koç ends talks to sell Yapi Kredi stake

Reuters/Murad Sezer

Turkey’s Koç Holding has confirmed that initial talks over the sale of a stake in Yapi Kredi Bank, the country’s fourth largest private bank in terms of assets, have been terminated.

Yapı Kredi’s parent corporation, Koç, said last month it was in talks with the UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) over the sale of a majority holding in the Istanbul-headquartered lender.

“Preliminary discussions for the sale of shares in its unit Yapi Kredi Bank have not resulted in an agreement and have been terminated,” Koç Holding said in a statement to the Turkey’s public disclosure platform.

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Reuters reported last month that FAB was offering around $7.5 billion for a 61.2 percent stake in Yapi Kredi, while Koç Holding was asking for $8.5 billion. 

In September 2023, Dubai Islamic Bank announced it was buying a 20 percent share in TOM Group, a Turkish ecommerce and fintech company. Qatari lender QNB has long been a presence in the Turkish marketplace, having acquired Finansbank in 2016. 

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AGBI reported in February that GCC-based banks have 2,156 branches in Turkey, citing figures from Marmore Mena Intelligence, a subsidiary of Kuwait Financial Centre.

For comparison, banks in the region have 1,147 branches in Pakistan, 745 in Egypt and just 56 in the US and Europe.