Lebanon’s Bank Audi gets the approval for a Turkish unit

Lebanon’s Bank Audi said it had won approval to open a subsidiary deposit bank in Turkey with share capital of $300 million.

Audi, which already operates in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, said its decision to expand into Turkey came as Turkish-Arab trade worth billions of dollars continued to expand.

“Our new subsidiary will particularly target the Turkish fast growing middle corporate segment, which offers a large potential for financial services,” Audi said in a statement issued late on Friday. “...In parallel, we will explore the possibility to develop retail products.”

Last week Audi posted a 7.1 percent rise in nine-month net profit to $271 million, despite a sharp fall in Lebanon's economic growth and a rise in provisions for losses in Egypt and Syria.

It said the medium-term outlook for countries hit by the wave of Arab unrest this year was "much brighter", and it would continue its policy of regional expansion.