A pedestrian passes a Qatar National Bank (QNB) branch in Doha (file). “It is likely that QNB will be at the forefront in this sale,” a source said about the anticipated sale by the National Bank of Greece of a stake in its Turkish unit Finansbank.

Reuters/Istanbul

Qatar National Bank, Turkey’s Garanti Bank and Fibabanka are interested in an anticipated sale by National Bank of Greece of a stake in its Turkish unit Finansbank, sources close to the matter told Reuters.
One source said an unnamed Chinese group was also interested in the stake sale in Finansbank, which is virtually 100% owned by NBG.
Under a restructuring plan approved by European regulators, NBG committed to selling 40% of its Finansbank stake but postponed the plans earlier this year on valuation concerns.
NBG, Greece’s biggest lender, declined last week to comment on a report that it had received a bid from QNB valuing Finansbank at about €3bn ($3.4bn).
“In total four groups have made bids. NBG wants to have concrete bids when the stress test results come in,” another source said.
“It is likely that QNB will be at the forefront in this sale.”
The sources said Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were advising on the sale. Another source said that the data room process was about to begin.
Finansbank told Reuters it had nothing to add to a statement which it made to the Istanbul Stock Exchange last week, when it said alternatives were being considered to cover NBG’s potential capital shortfall and that a final decision had not been taken.
A QNB spokesman was not available to comment when Reuters called the bank’s Doha office yesterday. QNB said in July it was interested in entering the Turkish market given the right opportunity, but that it was not in any specific discussions.
Garanti Bank and Fibabanka declined to comment.
NBG has not abandoned a plan to eventually hold a public offering and reduce its Finansbank stake, continuing to work towards a share sale.  The European Central Bank’s banking supervision arm is due to conduct a comprehensive assessment of all four main Greek banks this month to assess their recapitalisation needs after the imposition of capital controls in late June to halt massive deposit flight.
Finansbank has capital of 2.84bn lira and is 99.8% owned by NBG with the remaining 0.2% traded in Istanbul. Its market value is around $5.6bn.
Earlier this week, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that the Finansbank sale was being conducted by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) and that initial bids will be received by the weekend.
An NBG spokesman said the bank did not want to comment on the report and an official from the bank has previously said any decision would probably only be taken after the results of the stress tests.
Meanwhile, Garanti Bank said yesterday it planned to issue up to €2bn ($2.27bn) of covered bonds and to borrow two separate tranches of €1.5bn and $1.5bn through a separate syndicated loan.
Garanti made the announcement in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange.