Tuesday, June 19 2012 21:54
Good financial performance in 2011 encourages Araratbank to pay dividends
ArmInfo. Good financial performance in 2011 will allow Araratbank to pay its shareholders 4.5% dividend per share.
The decision to pay dividends was adopted during the shareholders' annual meeting on Tuesday.
For this purpose the bank has earmarked 268mln AMD out of its 2.2bln AMD net profit.
CEO of Araratbank Ashot Osipyan has told ArmInfo that it was not an easy decision: at first, one of the majority shareholders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, objected to it, insisting on increasing the capital, but when it learned that in Nov the bank was planning a home market IPO, it agreed.
Osipyan did not specify how many shares would be issued, but said that by the end of 2014 the bank would organize an international IPO and was negotiating that possibility with the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the stock exchanges of the Baltic states.
In 2011 Araratbank's net profit grew by 73.1%. ROE made up 19.6%, ROA - 3% (one of the best results in Armenia's banking sector). EPS made up 1,857 AMD per share - 734 AMD more than in 2010. The book value of one share was 10,266 AMD, the nominal value - 5,000 AMD. As a result P/E ratio made up 2.7.
In 2011 the bank's assets grew by 39.1% to 87.5bln AMD, wherein consumer loans made up 38.3bln AMD (52% annual growth). The liabilities grew by 43% to 75.3bln AMD, wherein 25.1bln AMD were deposits (7.9% annual growth). The total capital grew by 19.3% to 12.2bln AMD, with the authorized capital equaling 7.148bln AMD.
Osipyan told the shareholders that in Jan-May 2012 the bank's assets amounted to 108bln AMD, wherein 45bln AMD were loans. During the same period the liabilities totaled 94bln AMD. The net profit made up 1.54bln AMD. This is enough to hope for a substantial growth by the end of this year.
In 2012 Araratbank is going to enlarge its branch network. For the moment the bank has 40 branches in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The shareholders of Araratbank are 84 physical and legal entities. The biggest ones are the Flash oil trader (74.18%) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (25%+1), with the latter having invested $22mln in the form of capital and credits.
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