May 12 (SeeNews) - Turkey's sovereign wealth fund has started a procedure to increase the capital of state-owned lenders Ziraat Bank, Halkbank [IST:HALKB] and VakifBank [IST:VAKBN] by a total of 21 billion lira ($2.98 billion/2.76 billion euro), local media reported on Tuesday.
The capital injection will strengthen the capital structures and support the adequacy of the three banks, Anadolu news agency reported, quoting a statement by the Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF).
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The planned transaction will see TWF enter the shareholding structure of VakifBank. The wealth fund already owns all shares of Ziraat Bank and holds a majority stake in Halkbank.
TWF in April purchased all of the shares of the six public insurance companies operating in the country for 6.54 billion lira as part of a finance ministry plan to consolidate all public insurance companies.
TWF owns all or part of the shares of major companies operating in various sectors of Turkish economy, including flag carrier Turkish Airlines, Turk Telekom, stock exchange operator Borsa Istanbul and Turkish Petroleum, among others.
(1 euro = 7.60425 lira)