Thursday, December 22 2011 15:33
EBRD to grant $6 mln credit to Armeconombank
Arminfo. Armeconombank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed today a credit contract at $6 mln with 5 years repayment period. The credit resources will be directed to financing of the micro, small and medium-sized business, including the staring businessmen and farmers, the head of the EBRD Yerevan office, Valeriu Razlog, said at today's press-conference.
He said that according to the desire of Armeconombank, the credit will be delivered in the Armenian currency and the hedging of the foreign currency risks will be implemented by TCX Currency Exchange Fund. The first tranche of the credit in an amount $3 mln will be delivered in several days. "The given credit is granted within the frames of the EBRD strategy in Armenia on supporting micro and small companies", - he said.
Chairman of Armeconombank Board, Armen Naljan, said that within the frames of the contract the credits will be delivered to the borrowers with 14% of interest rate with a minimal size 3 mln drams. "The dram resources are interesting to us stemming from the fact that the customers of the bank chiefly require dram credits, as foreign currency credits always contain risks. For this reason, Armeconombank will go on attracting dram means from their partners", - he said. He also added that within the frames of the contract credits will be delivered by a special department created in the bank under the assistance of the EBRD, which specializes at microcrediting. "At present, the portfolio of the credits delivered by the given department amounted to $5.5 mln. Incidentally, there is no problematic credit in the portfolio", he said when replying to Arminfo correspondent's question.
To recall, Armeconombank and EBRD have been cooperating since 2000 within the frames of various programmes the volume of which exceeded $45 mln.
As of 22 December 2011, the total capital of the bank is more than 9.14 bln drams, the assets - 64.4 bln drams, credit investments - 30.5 bln drams, deposits of individual persons - 10.7 bln drams. The profit of the bank amounted to 504.6 mln drams.
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