Russia's state-owned Sberbank (SBER03.MM) is in the final stage of negotiations with the international unit of Austria's Volksbanken (OTVVp.VI) to buy 51 percent of the lender, Vedomosti reported on Wednesday. Sources in Sberbank and close to the bank's top management told the newspaper the deal would be closed in the very near future. Sberbank's head of strategy, Denis Bugrov, told Reuters in an interview earlier this month that the bank's main foreign acquisition targets were in central and eastern Europe and Turkey. Bugrov declined to comment on specific potential acquisition targets, but made it clear that Sberbank was interested in acquiring a bank with an existing distribution network across the region. (Writing by Jessica Bachman; editing by Douglas Busvine)
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