Exclusive: ING on course to win auction for HSBC's Turkish bank - sources

[July 02, 2015]  By Asli Kandemir, Nevzat Devranoglu and Steve Slater

ISTANBUL/LONDON (Reuters) - Dutch lender ING Group is set to win the auction to buy HSBC's Turkish business, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Four people familiar with the situation said HSBC had narrowed down the field to one suitor, and two of the sources said that was ING, though they added a deal had yet to be finalised.

ING, which already has a presence in Turkey, was one of three banks to submit a non-binding bid in May, sources previously told Reuters. The other two were Bahrain's Arab Banking Corp. (ABC) and France's BNP Paribas.

HSBC is the 12th biggest bank in Turkey and is selling the loss-making business as part of its attempt to cut costs and assets to improve profitability, and to reduce its complexity. The business comprises corporate and investment banking operations as well as a retail arm.

ING's existing Turkish bank has about $16 billion of assets, slightly larger than HSBC's, which has $15 billion in assets and about 300 branches.

Both businesses lack scale and need to expand to survive in the highly competitive Turkish banking system to compete with the likes of Isbank, Garanti Bank and some state-run lenders, local sources have said.

HSBC lost $64 million in Turkey last year, dragged down by a $155 million loss at its retail business after regulatory changes capped interest rates on credit cards and overdrafts.

An acquisition would mark a return to the takeover trail for ING, which expanded internationally with a series of deals over two decades before needing rescuing by the Dutch government at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

EU rules on state aid meant it had to sell businesses and was not allowed to make acquisitions, but the block on purchases ended in May when it cut its holding in insurance arm NN Group.

CEO and Chairman Ralph Hamers has told analysts he would consider acquisitions to increase ING's presence in countries where it already has a foothold.

(Additional reporting by David French and Leigh Thomas; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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