Thursday, March 5 2020 12:50

ArmInfo. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) withdrew from the capital of INECOBANK by selling its share (23,002 shares or 12.6%) to the  majority shareholders Avetis Baloyan and Karen Safaryan. This is  evidenced by the information posted on the website of the Central  Bank of the Republic of Armenia on actual changes in the share  capital of INECOBANK.

According to the source, as a result of this transaction, the share  of A. Baloyan in the capital of INECOBANK increased from 33% to  38.1%, K. Safaryan - from 28% to 32.95%, and the share of investment  funds agRIF Cooperatief U.A. (Belgium) and DWM FUNDS S.C.A.-SICAV SIF  (Luxembourg) remained unchanged at 10.01% and 5.1%, respectively. In  particular, A. Baloyan acquired 13824 shares from EBRD and the number  of shares owned by him reached 69273, and K. Safaryan, having bought  9178 shares, increased the number of his shares to 59911. agRIF  Cooperatief U.A. investment funds and DWM FUNDS S.C.A.-SICAV SIF owns  18201 and 9272 shares of INECOBANK respectively.

With the exit of EBRD from the bank's capital, the number of  shareholders decreased from 11 to 10 - these are 2 legal entities and  8 individuals. Moreover, the share of legal entities represented by  non-residents decreased to 15.11% from 39.38% in 2015. The total  capital of INECOBANK by January 1, 2020 reached 56.3 billion drams or  $ 117.3 million, with an annual growth of 9.8%. Moreover, the size of  the authorized capital of INECOBANK, after an increase in 2015 by  85%, in 2016-2019. not changed - 22.3 billion drams or $ 46.5 million  prior to the departure of the EBRD, a member of the KfW banking  group, Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklunsgesellschaft mbH (DEG)  and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), whose total  participation stake at that time was about 17%, left the capital of  INECOBANK in 2018. With their exit, accompanied by the emergence of  the investment fund agRIF Cooperatief U.A., it was possible to  maintain the share of non-resident legal entities in the bank's  capital at 32.7% for almost a year. But already in the first quarter  of 2019, EBRD participation, reduced to 12.6%, reduced the share of  legal entities, despite the advent of the DWM FUNDS S.C.A.-SICAV SIF  investment fund, to 27.76% in the capital of INECOBANK.

It should be noted that five years earlier, EBRD in the banking  market of Armenia was present in the capitals of four banks -  Armeconombank (25%), Araratbank (25%), ProCredit Bank Armenia  (10.83%) and Byblos Bank Armenia (25%). In 2015, EBRD entered the  capital of Ameriabank with a 20% interest, and at the end of the same  year, in the process of combining ProCredit Bank Armenia and  INECOBANK, it entered the capital of the latter with a share of  22.7%, reducing it to 12 in early 2019 6% against that in 2015-2016.  The banking system of Armenia suffered reputational losses, because  under the pressure of strict requirements of the Central Bank on  additional capitalization of banks from 5 billion to 30 billion  drams, institutional players such as the Russian Gazprombank  (represented by Areximbank-GPB Group) and the German ProCredit  Holding AG & Co. left the market KGa A. (represented by ProCredit  Bank Armenia). After the consolidation process, by 2017 the number of  participants in the banking sector decreased from 21 to 17.

As a result, as of March 2020, the presence of EBRD remained in the  capital of only two Armenian banks - Ameriabank and Armeconombank.  But the current EBRD participation shares in the capital of these  banks are now much lower than the initial ones: in Ameriabank -  17.78% (against the previous 20%), and in Armeconombank - 2.52%  (against the previous 25%), which nevertheless answers The EBRD's  procedural mandate, as a rule, does not linger in bank capital after  a 5-year period of its institutional presence. Perhaps the special  exception is Armeconombank, where EBRD has been present since 2004,  that is, over 15 years, over 3 terms, gradually reducing the share.

As a result, according to the CBA, the share of non-residents in the  capital of Armenian banks in 2019 decreased from 62.8% to 60.7%.  Non-residents are present in 15 of the functioning 17. Six years  before - in 2013 this share reached 74.6% (in 20 out of 22),  decreasing in 2014 to 66.5% (in 19 out of 22), increasing in 2015 to  67.7% (in 18 out of 22), with a drop in 2016 to 61.4% (in 15 out of  19) and a subsequent miserable increase in 2017 to 61.8% (in 15 of  17).

According to the financial reports, by January 1, 2020, the total  capital of the banking system of Armenia reached 844.8 billion drams  ($ 1.8 billion), an increase of 12.2% year on year, and almost 2  times compared with the figure of five years ago. In 2015, GPB  Areximbank Group (merged with Ardshinbank) and ProCredit Bank Armenia  (merged with INECOBANK) left the banking market, and in 2016, the  Armenian Development Bank (merged with Araratbank) and BTA Bank  (merged with Armeconombank).  The average capital adequacy level in  the banking market over the past 3 years has decreased from 38.76 to  27.57% (with a regulatory minimum of 12%). By January 1, 2020, the  total normative total capital of the banking system reached AMD 808.9  billion, or $ 1.7 billion, having increased by 12.7% over the year,  and by 30.5% in a three-year period.