ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank plans to enter Armenian bond market with medium-term USD tranche
ArmInfo. ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank plans to enter the bond market of Armenia with the medium-term USD tranche within the next 2 months. As Stepan Zakinyan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the financial part of ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, told ArmInfo correspondent, the circulation period of the USD tranche will be 2.5 years. "This will be an experimental release, which will enable us to understand the market reaction and investors' appetites," he said.
Zakinyan also informed that the release of AMD bonds is planned later. The market-maker will be one of the banks, which he abstained.
Asked by ArmInfo about the assessment of the state of the Armenian bond market, Zakinyan replied that "the liquidity in this market is low, since after active primary placement, this activity fades in the secondary market."
"The receipt by our bank of the rating from Fitch in a few days ago, in principle, meant entering the bond market. This is not the first Fitch rating assigned to our bank, just the former ones were not published and were for internal use. After 2006-2010 this rating process was suspended until the last time," Zakinyan noted.
To note, in June Fitch Ratings assigned to the Bank ACBA-Credit Agricole a "B +" rating with a "Long- term Issuer Default Rating" (IDR) rating for the issuer of long-term debt securities. In the Fitch report, assigning this very rating level to the bank is determined by a solid core of internal financial viability. Assigning a rating similar to the country rating in the world practice to the Bank is considered a high valuation, and this Fitch Ratings assessment of ACBA-Credit Agricole activity confirms the leading positions and transparency of this financial structure.
As of July 4, 2017, NASDAQ OMX Armenia quotes 32 issues of corporate bonds of 11 issuers. Of these, 20 issuing (including 16 USD) were made by 7 issuing banks: Araratbank, Ameriabank, Armswissbank, Armbusinessbank, Anelik Bank, Unibank and Converse Bank.
To remind, "ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank" CJSC has been operating in Armenia since 1995. Since September 2006, the largest European banking group Credit Agricole SA has been the majority shareholder of the bank. With a 15.56% interest in the capital, followed by the participation of SJSC Sacam International (a member of the Credit Agricole SA group) in the amount of 12.44%, along with which there are 10 regional Unions of Villagers Mutual Assistance).