Armenian Unibank is preparing to hold IPO

ArmInfo. Armenian "Unibank" is preparing for an IPO in the Armenian Stock Exchange NASDAQ OMX ARMENIA. Notice of a public issue of shares of "Unibank" was taken today in the pages of the official newspaper "Hayastani Hanrapetutyun."

According to the report, the bank intends to place on the open market 14.5 million ordinary registered non-documentary shares. The bank said that the nominal price of one share is 100 drams, but the placement price of 230 drams on a non-auction basis. Thus, with a total nominal value of 1.45 billion drams, the bank intends to raise 3.335 billion drams.

The underwriter of the first issue of shares will be "Unibank", it was given the status of depository system account operator and a member of the settlement system. Market-maker on the secondary market issue will be the investment and brokerage company "Armenbrok".

It should be noted that the Central Bank of Armenia re-registered the established in 2001 "Unibank" CJSC Open Joint Stock Company on June 23, 2015. The Bank have not registered its shares on the NASDAQ OMX ARMENIA so far and have not passed the listing procedure, in all likelihood it will be done after the placement of the first public release. Despite the absence of quoted market prices, the market price of one share is set at 230 drams. According to the emission prospectus, the minimum amount of purchase of shares is set to AMD 1 million. According to the experts, this restriction is due to the fact that the bank intends to attract investors as the shareholders willing to long-term investments rather than the wider population.

Note that before the conversion of their legal status, bank, according to the statements for the first quarter of 2015, has replaced by its sole shareholder - instead of Ripatonso Holdings Limited the shares in the bank went to another offshore company Gloveri Holdings LTD. According to market experts, the change of a formal shareholder was caused by purely technical necessity, as the ultimate beneficiaries of the bank are the Russian banker of Armenian origin, President of the Russian "Uniastrum Bank" Gagik Zakaryan and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank Giorgi Piskov.

It should be noted that, according to the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo) of financial rating of Armenian banks as of June 30, 2015 the bank's assets amounted to 165.7 billion AMD (12 position in the banking system of Armenia), the loan portfolio amounted to - AMD 113.8 billion (7 positions). The accumulated profit amounted to AMD 7.7 billion (9 position), with an annual decline of 2.8%.  Net profit for the first half amounted to AMD 678.4 million, with an annual decline of 32%. The capital adequacy ratio amounted to 12.8% on July 1, the level of overall liquidity - 24.5%, current liquidity ratio - 352.6%. The share of non-performing loans (NPL) as of July 1, accounted for 14% of the loan portfolio (13 position) with an annual growth of the absolute value of 55.2%.

According to the prospectus, on 31.12.2014 the profitability of assets (ROA) of the bank was 0.3% and return on equity - 2.6%.

The size of the total capital of the bank in the first half of 2015 amounted to 20.8 billion drams (12 position). The authorized capital of the bank is 13.1 billion (11 position), divided into 98,997 million ordinary registered and 32.01 million preferred shares, with nominal value of 100 drams each.

In June 2015, the Moody's rating agency assigned bank deposit ratings in local currency at the level B2 and foreign currency - B3. To recall that Moody's Investor Service assigned Armenia in January of this year, the country ceiling rating at Ba3 with a "negative" outlook.

The announcement of the placing on the market the shares of "Unibank" will be done 5 days before the start of the process.