Turkey's Halkbank sees 10pct profit growth in 2012

Halkbank, Turkey's sixth-largest lender, expects profit growth of 10 per cent in 2012 and loan growth around 18 per cent, the bank's general manager told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday.

General Manager Suleyman Aslan also said the bank was aiming for 15 per cent asset growth and 23-25 per cent growth in return on equity this year.

He said Halkbank planned to roll over a $1 billion syndicated loan and issue a $500 million eurobond. The bank would also seek funding worth $750m through bilateral deals.

Halkbank, 75-per cent owned by the Turkish state, is little known outside Turkey but has emerged over the past year as one of the few banks willing to handle oil payments to Iran from Indian refiners and Turkey's sole refiner, Tupras.

It also has a representative office in Tehran that it inherited in 2004 when it took over Pamukbank, once a jewel of Turkish tycoon Mehmet Emin Karamehmet's business empire.

Customers cannot open accounts there, but the Tehran office does help handle interbank deals and issues with Iranian banks.

The bank owns a 21-branch unit in Macedonia, Halk Banka Skopje, and Aslan said the bank was considering using that bank as a base to expand in the region. He said the bank was considering opening branches in Serbia.

Aslan said Halkbank was also looking for partnership deals in Japan, China, India and Singapore.

Most of Halkbank's business involves lending to domestic companies as Turkey's economy has boomed over the past decade.

Halkbank has grown to become the country's sixth-largest bank based on unconsolidated assets and had a domestic market share of nearly 8 per cent by end-September, according to Fitch Ratings.