Dubai-based Emirates NBD PJSC is in early talks to acquire HSBC Holdings PLC’s Turkey unit, a move that would expand the Gulf lender’s presence in Turkey through its ownership of DenizBank, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The talks are at an early stage and may not lead to an agreement, the people told Bloomberg.
HSBC declined to discuss the report. “We don’t comment on market speculation,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Emirates NBD did not comment on the talks.
If completed, the acquisition would add HSBC’s Turkey operations to a group that already controls DenizBank, one of the country’s largest private lenders.
Emirates NBD completed its purchase of a 99.85 percent stake in DenizBank from Russia’s Sberbank on July 31, 2019, after securing approvals from regulators in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Austria and Russia.
DenizBank gives Emirates NBD a large base in Turkey. The bank lists 578 branches in Turkey, Kyrenia and Bahrain, while DenizBank AG, its subsidiary in Vienna, has 13 branches.
HSBC’s Turkey unit has moved in the opposite direction over the past decade.
The bank, which says it has operated in Turkey since 1990, provides wholesale banking, retail banking and wealth management services in the country.
HSBC expanded its Turkish presence after acquiring Demirbank in 2001, a lender that had been taken over by Turkey’s banking regulator during the country’s financial crisis.
The bank later reduced its branch network and cut jobs as lira volatility, regulation and competition weighed on its Turkey business.
HSBC had 315 branches and about 6,000 employees in Turkey in 2013, but that had fallen to about 80 branches and 2,000 employees by September 2019.
The branch network has since fallen to about 36, while HSBC is now Turkey’s 15th largest bank by assets and accounts for 0.3 percent of total loans, according to the latest sector data cited by Bloomberg.
HSBC previously tried to sell its Turkish business. A planned sale to Dutch lender ING Groep NV did not go through in 2015, and Reuters reported in 2020 that HSBC was again considering an exit if it could find a local buyer.
The report comes as HSBC has been reducing parts of its global business under Elhedery, who became group chief executive in 2024.
Reuters reported in December 2024 that HSBC was carrying out an overhaul aimed at cutting costs and improving decision making under Elhedery.
Any sale would need approval from Turkish regulators and would mark one of Emirates NBD’s largest moves in Turkey since the DenizBank acquisition.