In a move showing Gulf interests expanding overseas, the Commercial Bank of Qatar has purchased 70.84% stake in Alternatifbank. Alternatifbank is a lending firm based out of Turkey with a market value of US$594 million.

The shares would be taken out of the 96% shareholdings of Anadolu Holdings of Istanbul. The stake was acquired after months of discussions with the holdings firm. The projected amount to be paid for the stake is as much as twice the book value of Alternatifbank by the end of June 2013. As reference, the December 31, 2012 book value was set at 585 million Turkish lira or US$323.9 million. The purchase is being advised by the Bank of America Merill for CBQ and Societe Generale for Alternatifbank.

The strong interest in Turkey by Qatari banks is clearly to diversify its interests outside of the kingdom's economy and the recent lack of acquirable assets in the Gulf region according to Fitch Ratings. Another major bank, the Qatar National Bank is interested in purchasing assets in Turkey. The Gulf region's largest lender is geared up for acquisitions as confirmed by its CFO but there were no firm targets set yet. One of its bids was Denizbank but was eased out by Sberbank of Russia.