Koçbank

Infobox Company
company_name = Koçbank
company_
company_type = Bank
foundation = 1981
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industry =
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parent =Koç Holding
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homepage = [http://www.kocbank.com.tr www.kocbank.com.tr]
footnotes =

Koçbank is a Turkish bank. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koç Holding.

Origins

Koçbank was established in 1986 when Koç Holding purchased 51% of American Express Bank's shares. Originally named Koç-American Bank, the company was renamed in 2003 after Koç Holding purchased the remainder of the bank.

In 2002, 50% of Koçbank was sold to UniCredit.

As of 2003, Koçbank had 143 branches, including branches in Azerbaijan, the Netherlands and Bahrain.

On 29th September 2005, Koçbank enhanced its position in the Turkish banking market with the acquisition of 57.4% of the share capital of Yapi Kredi, one of Turkey’s oldest and largest financial groups.

Koçbank was founded in 1981 as the American Express Bank, based in Istanbul. Koç Holding acquired a 51% stake in the bank in 1986, renaming it Koç-American Bank, and in 1992 the bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of Koç Holding, and was renamed as Koçbank A.Ş. It grew to be one of the most important institutions in the sector with its young history and its financial subsidiaries established in a short term to address the financial needs of its customers.

Expansion and restructuring

Following the decision of the Koç Group to expand in the financial sector, Turkey’s first financial holding company, Koç Financial Services (KFS), was established in March 2001 as a management company and all the financial companies owned by the Koç Group, including Koçbank, were united under this umbrella.

One of the most significant developments of the restructuring phase that started with the foundation of KFS was the establishment of a strategic partnership with UniCredit (UCI), a leading international banking group of Italian origin present in 20 countries. In October 2002, the Koç Group and UniCredit signed a partnership agreement and became 50/50 shareholders in KFS; making KFS the first foreign partnership to be established in the financial sector in Turkey.

Koç Group and UniCredit further deepened their investment in growth in Turkey by acquiring, through KFS, Yapı Kredi. Acquisition of Yapı Kredi and its subsequent merger with Koçbank are the result of Unicredit’s and Koç Group’s shared vision in Turkey’s long-term growth prospects as well as their strategic focus on growth in the financial services sector.

Following the merger in October 2006, 80.2% of Yapı Kredi was owned by KFS while minorities’ stake in the Bank was 19.8%. Following the completion of the share exchange between KFS and Yapı Kredi in October 2007 for the transfer of the shares owned by KFS in YK Leasing, YK factoring and YK Azerbaijan to Yapı Kredi,the ownership of KFS in Yapı Kredi increased to 81.8% while the minorities share has changed to 18.2%.

Following the legal merger, Yapı Kredi is positioned as the fourth largest privately-owned commercial bank by asset size in Turkey, with interest in credit cards, assets under management, non-cash loans, leasing, factoring, private pension funds and non-life insurance. The combined KFS Group’s financial services network,now consists of over 13 million customers and 684 branches across the country.

[ [http://www.kocbank.com/en-US/investorRelations/corporate_information/our_history.aspx Yapı Kredi - InvestorRelations ] ]

External links

* [http://www.kocbank.com.tr/ Official website]

NOTES

http://www.kocbank.com/en-US/investorRelations/corporate_information/our_history.aspx