BankTuranAlem’s expansion in the CIS region in the past 12 months has been impressive, through organic growth and acquisitions. In the first four months of 2007 alone, BTA’s assets grew 18.5% to $19.4 billion. The main driver of this asset growth was the loan portfolio, which grew 66.5%. In turn, income had nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006. At the end of 2006, BTA outlined plans to raise $3 billion through bond issuance and syndicated loans. So far, $1.5 billion has been raised, of which $500 million came from a syndicated loan. In the past 12 months there have been many acquisitions across the CIS region. In December 2006, BTA completed the acquisition of a majority stake in the Kazakh bank Temirbank and, at the turn of the year, it purchased a 34% stake in Turkey’s Sekerbank, which brought BTA to a total of 11 banking partners in the CIS countries and Turkey, and made it the largest banking group in the CIS.
July 13, 2007
