Agence France Presse — English
January 25, 2008 Friday 3:19 PM GMT
Russia’s Gazprombank buys major Armenian bank
Russia’s Gazprombank has bought 80.09 percent of one of Armenia’s
largest retail banks, Areximbank, and is in negotiations with
Austria’s Raiffeisen International to buy the rest, Gazprombank
vice-president Olga Kazanskaya said Friday.
Details of the deal were not disclosed. The bank will be renamed
Gazprombank of Armenia by the end of the year, Kazanskaya said at a
press conference.
She said Gazprombank, controlled by Russian gas giant Gazprom, would
be seeking to finance energy projects in Armenia with ArmRosGazprom,
a joint Russian-Armenian company that controls natural gas pipelines
feeding Russian gas to Armenia.
Russia is a close ally of Armenia, a former Soviet republic, and its
companies have extensive investments in the country including in the
energy and telecoms sectors.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress