BRUSSELS (MNI) – A sale of Dexia Bank’s Turkish unit, Deniz Bank,
would greatly reduce the Belgian-French group’s profitability, the head
of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority said Wednesday.
“Over the last two to three years most of Dexia’s profits have come
from Deniz Bank,” Jean-Paul Servais told the Belgian Federal
Parliament’s finance committee.
A sale of Deniz Bank would mean that an important part of the
group’s profits would be lost, Servais warned.
Global banking giant HSBC, Russia’s Sperbank and Qatar National
Bank, have in recent weeks expressed an interest in acquiring the
Turkish bank 99.8% owned by Dexia.
Belgian, French and Luxembourg regulators have been working on a
deal to carve up the group, which has both strong and troubled units,
and last week they concluded an agreement to sell the Belgian bank and
the French municipal-lending division to state owned companies in the
two countries.
Qatar National Bank, the Persian Gulf state’s biggest bank, earlier
this month secured a deal to purchase Dexia’s Luxembourg bank.
Belgian-French banking group Dexia became the first major bank
casualty of the Eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis when the world’s
largest lender to municipalities found itself shunned by other banks in
funding markets because of concerns about the group’s large holdings of
Greek government bonds.
Under the control of the French and Belgian states since 2008, the
group earlier this month was forced to seek further state guarantees
after a ratings downgrade by Moody’s and Standard and Poors triggered
significant withdrawals.
–Brussels bureau: +324-9522-8374; pkoh@marketnews.com
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