Araratbank becomes the first Armenian bank to be rated by Global
Rating Group
arminfo
2007-06-22 19:54:00
The Araratbank became the first Armenian bank to be rated by the
Global Rating Group. At the June 22 press-conference dedicated to this
event, the Chairman of the Araratbank’s Board, Ashot Osipyan, noted
that the bank is awarded credit rating with forecast.
For his part, the President of the Global Rating Group, Richard
Hainsworth, emphasized that the rating is conditioned by high rates of
development, presence of a strong holder, maximum transparency,
available political resources. The factors restraining the rating are
Araratbank’s recent return to the banking market, high level of
competition. To remind, Araratbank (before November 2005 –
Armcommunication Bank) is a small, private, actively developing
Armenian bank, which is controlled by one of the largest oil traders
of the country – the Flesh company.
A.Osipyan noted that Araratbank started rapidly developing since
October 2006. According to him, the rating given by the Global Rating
Group agency is of much importance for the bank. "As the Araratbank
returned to the banking market comparatively a short time ago, this
result is very good for us at the moment. We intend to develop more
actively, this will give an opportunity to the Global Rating Group to
reconsider the rating and raise it," A.Osipyan stressed. He added that
since the day of operation, Araratbank’s assets have increased almost
three times (to 13.7 bln AMD), liabilities – 4.5 times (to 9.5 bln
AMD), total capital – 1.5 times (to 4.2 bln AMD). "The bank has become
an active participant in the financial market and introduced new
banking instruments," he said. In May 2007, the bank successfully
finished issuing corporate bonds worth a total of 250 mln AMD. In
addition, Araratbank is planning to issue shares in the volume of
5-10% of the total capital that totals $12.7 mln at the
moment. "According to preliminary data, the bank will start IPO in
Oct-Nov 2007," A.Osipyan assured. He didn’t rule out another issue of
bonds in the future. He added that it is planned to reorganize the
bank’s status from CJSC to OJSC.
To note, AmRating is an independent rating agency in Armenia. It is a
part of the Global Rating Group. The AmRating agency started its work
in December 2006. The agency focuses on awarding ratings to banks and
researching the banking sector. The mission of AmRating is to
contribute to creation of a reliable, honest and transparent financial
market. The key tasks of the agency are to lobby the advantages of the
national rating, to provide the market with objective analysis of the
companies’ activities, to single out the companies with successful
management and strong corporate administration, to emphasize the risks
of weak management and bad corporate administration.