Azerbaijan's ABB acquires 51% of Uzbekistan's Davr Bank with $100M investment

What's the deal? ABBDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → , an Azerbaijani bank, has acquired a 51% stake in Uzbekistan's Davr BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, investing $100 million in the process. The announcement came from ABB's chairman of the board, Abbas Ibrahimov, at a press conference on May 8 dedicated to the bank's sustainability report.

Davr Bank currently holds $1 billion in assets and serves more than 1.4 million clients.

Why now? Ibrahimov said ABB chose Davr Bank after conducting research on the Uzbekistan market, concluding it had "more prospects than others." The bank's existing relationships with international financial institutions and its profitability made it an attractive target. ABB also wanted to avoid building a presence from scratch in a new market.

What could go wrong? Expanding into a new Central Asian market carries regulatory, political, and operational risks. Integrating two banking cultures across borders is notoriously difficult, and Uzbekistan's financial sector — while growing — remains relatively underdeveloped compared to more mature markets. Whether ABB can realise the flexibility and profitability it admires in Davr Bank under joint ownership remains to be seen.

The signal: Dealroom classifies Davr Bank as a mature universal commercial bank, yet its acquirer ABB is tagged as an early-growth stage institution — an unusual dynamic that underscores how aggressively younger Azerbaijani financial players are seeking scale abroad. Uzbekistan's ongoing liberalisation of its banking sector is creating a window for cross-border deals, and a $100 million entry via an established, profitable lender with 1.4 million clients is a faster route to market share than a greenfield build.

Read more: abc.az