Dexia completes $3.9 bn sale of Turkish unit

Franco-Belgian bank Dexia said on Friday it had finalised the sale of its Turkish unit DenizBank to Russia's Sberbank for approximately 3.0 billion euros ($3.9 billion). The deal, agreed in June, will result in Dexia suffering a loss of 744 million euros, which it will book in the third quarter of this year. Dexia said the proceeds of the deal will be used to reduce debts to Belfius, its former retail operations in Belgium that were rescued by the state at the end of 2011. First bailed out in 2008 amid the global financial crisis, Dexia was not able to survive subsequent turmoil created by the eurozone debt crisis and in October the three eurozone countries stepped in to wind up the bank.