Bank Hapoalim is the first Israeli bank to buy a controlling stake in a Russian bank.
Bank Hapoalim (LSE: 80OA; TASE: POLI) has acquired 78% of Russian bank JSC SDM for $111 million. The figure values the Russian bank at $142.5 million. The deal makes Bank Hapoalim the first Israeli bank to buy a controlling stake in a Russian bank.
SDM stated in its financial report that it had $632 million in assets and a shareholders' equity of $59 million at the end of 2007. SDM chairman Anatoly Landsman is the bank's controlling shareholder. The bank has an extensive debit card business and could, therefore, constitute a platform for Bank Hapoalim from which to expand the activity of its credit card subsidiary Isracard Ltd. overseas, a goal that the bank has mulled in the past.
Bank Hapoalim chairman Dan Dankner said, "The acquisition of the controlling stake in SDM is a further step in the implementation of our multi-year strategy program, at the center of which is our drive to increase the proportion of global banking activity in our overall banking businesses."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 17, 2008
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