AMERIABANK PROVIDES $18 MILLION WORTH LOANS FOR FINANCING CONSTRUCTION OF SMALL HYDROPOWER PLANTS

/ARKA/
April 22, 2010
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, April 22, /ARKA/. Ameriabank has provided 10 loans, worth
$18 million for financing construction of small hydropower plants,
Tigran Jrbashian, Ameriabank’s development director, told a news
conference today, adding that the bank’s portfolio for financing
construction of power plants is $25 million.

He said another six projects were in the process of considerations. In
his words, although financing construction of power generating
facilities has its own specifics and is a novelty in Armenia,
the results are quite promising. He said the demand for loans for
construction and upgrading of some 70 small hydropower plants is great.

He said the Cascade Bank that merged with Ameriabank, was also
specialized in financing renewable energy sector.

The bank provides loans for construction of small hydropower plants,
repayable in 8 years with a 3 year grace period at 11-18% interest
rate. The minimum amount of a loan is $1-2 million.

Tigran Jrbashian said also the aggregate profit of Ameriabank and
Cascade Bank after they merged earlier this year amounted to 654
million Drams in Q1. He said the total capital of both banks is about
30 billion Drams and in terms of capital size it is now the second
largest Armenian bank. He said the merged bank’s assets grew in the
first quarter by 36% to 110.5 billion Drams.

According to Tigran Jrbashian, Ameriabank’s credit portfolio in the
first quarter of 2010 grew by 7 billion Dams to 60 billion Drams,
a sizeable portion of which was extended to mall and medium-sized
businesses.

He said about 80% of the growth was secured by new clients and
implementation of package projects. The bank’s overall credit
investments after the merger with Cascade Bank rose to 71.9 billion
Drams, e said.