521 Armenian companies submit audit reports - minister

ArmInfo. A decision on support for the capital market (subsidizing companies' expenses for entering stock exchange) would have been ineffective in 2018, as the companies submitting audit reports for several successive years could be counted on the fingers of one hand at that time, Armenia's Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan stated at a Cabinet meeting on July 13.

At present, 521 companies can benefit from the government initiative to support the capital market. Most of them have over the last three years published reports on international audit.

"We are now gathering all market participants - the stock exchange, investment companies, beneficiaries - and we must cooperate to invigorate the capital market. We will try to essentially change the market status, and we believe it is serious support for capital market development," Mr Kerobyan said. 

Armenia's Premier Nikol Pashinyan said that capital market development can be a new component of not only economic development, but also of social protection and economic activities.

At a Cabinet meeting on July 6, a decision was made to encourage companies to enter the capital market and issue AMD securities. In particular, for the development of the capital market, the government is preparing to subsidize the costs associated with entering the stock exchange, including the costs of listing the company (its placement on the stock exchange), as well as the issuance of securities (issue) and their placement (search for buyers).

The subsidy will be available for the issuance of bonds in AMD, with a maturity of at least 36 months at the time of issue and listed on the stock exchange after the entry into force of the measure, in the following amounts;

for issue, placement and listing on the stock exchange in the amount of 2% of the nominal volume of placement, but not more than 30 million drams,

for circulation of bonds, in the amount of 3% of the nominal volume of placement for the first three years, but not more than AMD 45 million for each 12 months of circulation.

At the same time, assistance in placement and listing on the stock exchange is provided to each beneficiary only once in the amount of 80% of the expenses actually incurred and confirmed by the relevant documents.

The company will also be able to apply for a subsidy of 50% of the costs of obtaining and maintaining a rating from international rating agencies in the first year, and in the case of listing on a stock exchange operating in the Republic of Armenia, a subsidy of up to 80% of the first year costs (30% in addition to previous 50%). For the implementation of all three activities envisaged by the project, 10.65 billion drams will be required for the first three years. As a result, in the next three years, new issues of shares and bonds will amount to 97.5 billion drams.