Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) has received an offer to acquire BankPozitif, the Turkish unit that it controls, the Israeli bank has reported to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
The offer is from a Turkish holdings company that already has financial activities, sources inform "Globes." Thus if the deal is completed, it can be assumed that there will be no problem in the new owners obtaining a retail banking license from Turkish regulators to receive deposits from the public - a license that Hapoalim does not have. Pozitif has $175 million in capital, and in recent months most banking deals that it has carried out have been at a multiple of less than 1 of equity. Market sources believe that even if talks move ahead , the deal will not be closed before the end of the year.
Bank Hapoalim's announcement to the TASE said, "Pozitif has received an initial, unbinding approach from a potential investor to acquire the full shares in Pozitif, subject to due diligence and other conditions."
BankPozitif is controlled by Bank Hapoalim (70%) in partnership with Turkish businessman Halit Cingillioglu. The Turkish bank, which also has operations in Kazakhstan, was acquired by Hapoalim 9 years ago for $100 million. Since then the bank has generated few profits for Hapoalim and in 2014 Bank Pozitif lost $12 million compared with a profit of $8 million in 2013.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 13, 2015
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