Qatar finance minister sees QNB-Denizbank deal “if price right”

Qatar finance minister sees QNB-Denizbank deal “if price right”

Qatar's finance minister, who is also the chairman of Qatar National Bank, said on Sunday QNB could buy Turkey's Denizbank by year's end if the "price is right".

January 30, 2012 3:17 by Reuters

Asked if he hoped the purchase may be completed by the end of the year, Youssef Kamal said: “If the price is right.”

Kamal said QNB, the Gulf Arab state’s largest lender, did not immediately plan any other acquisition.

On Tuesday, Denizbank, Franco-Belgian bank Dexia’s Turkish unit, said the process to sell it could be pulled if offers were not high enough.

On Jan. 9, HSBC pulled out of the bidding to buy Denizbank, a person familiar with the matter said.

HSBC and Qatar National Bank had been frontrunners to buy the business and were conducting checks on it, sources had told Reuters.

The business was expected to fetch up to $6 billion and would be QNB’s largest acquisition to date.

Qatar, the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, has repeatedly made acquisitions overseas.

Sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is in the final stages of acquiring Credit Suisse’s headquarters in London and may sign the deal in a few weeks, two sources familiar with the matter said, in a deal which could be worth 330 million pounds ($517 million). (Reporting by Regan Doherty,; Writing by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Bernard Orr) *image from bloomberg.com