According to a statement from Özyeğin's Credit Europe Bank in Russia, the new bank will be a partnership between it and the Ikano Bank, owned by IKEA's founder Ingvar Kamprad's family through Ikano Group. It will start operations in 2013 and is meant to first serve the corporate clients of Ikano and IKEA but later expand its clientele beyond the two enterprises.
“Credit Europe Bank has immense experience in the Russian market. We totally believe that our cooperation will be fruitful,” Birger Lund, Ikano Group's Russia representative, said in a statement. Credit Europe General Manager Murat Başbay said they have formed a strategic partnership with the Ikano Group. Ikano Bank offers consumer loans to IKEA's customers in Germany, Austria, Poland and the Scandinavian countries.
The partners have already applied to the Russian banking watchdog to receive a banking license with a paid-up capital of 300 million rubles (nearly $10 million), Credit Europe Russia manager Haluk Aydınoğlu told Today's Zaman in Moscow. “You have to be proactive to do business in Russia, and we have learned how to do it in the Russian business environment,” he added. “We continue our investments because we have faith in Russia's future. The country grew stronger in the 2008-09 global financial crisis,” Aydınoğlu noted.
Özyeğin topped the “100 richest Turks” 2011 list in Forbes magazine with $3 billion in net assets. His Fiba Holding is active in tourism, real estate, energy and retails markets as well as the banking sector. It has the Fibabank in Turkey other than Amsterdam-based Credit Europe. In August 2006, the holding sold all the shares it had in Finansbank to the National Bank of Greece. Credit Europe has 122 branches in 53 cities across Russia, the world's largest country in terms of area, and employs 4,600 people there.
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Source : todayszaman.com
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