The bank’s A and B group shares owned by the directorate, which comprise a 58.5 percent stake worth almost $2.5 billion, will be transferred to the Treasury within a week, according to the presidential decree, published in the country’s Official Gazette.
The transfer of Vakıfbank to the Treasury may precede its acquisition by the Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF), which is chaired by Erdoğan and controls the country’s two largest state-run banks, Ziraat Bank and Halkbank.
The TWF was established by the president in 2016 and is made up of Turkey’s largest state enterprises.
About a quarter of Vakıfbank’s shares are traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Its net income almost halved to 503.2 million liras ($88 million) in the third quarter of the year from a year earlier.