AMERIABANK COMPLETES PLACEMENT OF BONDS OF IMEX GROUP
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. On September 15 Ameriabank
successfully completed the placement of Imex Group company’s 100,000
coupon bonds of the total amount of 1 billion drams (aout 3.3 million
USD). The nominal value of a bond is 10,00 drams, with a circulation
period of 24 months. This was announced at the October 16 press
conference with the participation of the head of Imex Group’s
presidential staff Tigran Galstian, the director of Ameriabank’s
development department Tigran Jrbashian, the director of the investment
banking operations department Andrey Shinkevich and the director of the
commercial operations department Sergei Shevchenko.
In the words of T. Galstian, the placement of the bonds bears evidence
of the investors’ trust in Imex Group. He stated that the issuing of
bonds will have continuous character, and other instruments of money
attraction will be used.
A. Shinkevich in his turn said that the placement of bonds was done in
the hard situation in Armenia’s securities market as a result of the
international financial crisis. He expressed a positive opinion about
the fact the bonds were placed among over 40 investors – legal and
natural persons, with insurance and investment compnaies being most
active. By official data of Ameriabank, such a wide range of investors
is unique in the Armenian market. During the placement, Ameriabank used
a competitive mechanism of placement for the first time in the
country’s corporate bond market when the investors proposed a level of
yield instead of establishment of a fixed level of yield by the placing
body. As a result of the use of the competitive mechanism, the yield of
Imex Group’s bonds made 11-11.5%.
S. Shevchenko said that within the next five days Ameriabank will
finish listing of Imex Group’s bonds on the Armenian Stock Exchange,
after which the bonds will be quoted at about a 11% annual yield level,
while the difference in sale and purchase prices will make 0.5% at the
maxiumum. In his opinion, these indices will be competitive. It was
mentioned that the bank will also conclude repo deals with these
securities for a period from 7 days to 3 months. Ameriabank purchased
15% of Imex Group’s bonds so as to implement their real price quotation.
The coupons of Imex Group’s bonds will be paid once a quarter. The
investors were also given the right of early redemption (sale option)
one year after the placement. The open subscription for bonds lasted
until October 10, the placement – until October 13-15.