ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank plans to enter Armenian bond market with  medium-term USD tranche

ArmInfo. ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank plans to enter the bond market of Armenia with the medium-term USD tranche within the next 2 months. As Stepan Zakinyan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the financial part of ACBA-Credit Agricole  Bank, told ArmInfo correspondent, the circulation period of the USD  tranche will be 2.5 years. "This will be an experimental release,  which will enable us to understand the market reaction and investors'  appetites," he said.

Zakinyan also informed that the release of AMD bonds is planned  later. The market-maker will be one of the banks, which he abstained.

Asked by ArmInfo about the assessment of the state of the Armenian  bond market, Zakinyan replied that "the liquidity in this market is  low, since after active primary placement, this activity fades in the  secondary market."

"The receipt by our bank of the rating from Fitch in a few days ago,  in principle, meant entering the bond market. This is not the first  Fitch rating assigned to our bank, just the former ones were not  published and were for internal use. After 2006-2010 this rating  process was suspended until the last time," Zakinyan noted.

To note, in June Fitch Ratings assigned to the Bank ACBA-Credit  Agricole a "B +" rating with a "Long- term Issuer Default Rating"  (IDR) rating for the issuer of long-term debt securities. In the  Fitch report, assigning this very rating level to the bank is  determined by a solid core of internal financial viability.   Assigning a rating similar to the country rating in the world  practice to the Bank is considered a high valuation, and this Fitch  Ratings assessment of ACBA-Credit Agricole activity confirms the  leading positions and transparency of this financial structure.

As of July 4, 2017, NASDAQ OMX Armenia quotes 32 issues of corporate  bonds of 11 issuers. Of these, 20 issuing (including 16 USD) were  made by 7 issuing banks: Araratbank, Ameriabank, Armswissbank,  Armbusinessbank, Anelik Bank, Unibank and Converse Bank.

To remind, "ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank" CJSC has been operating in  Armenia since 1995. Since September 2006, the largest European  banking group Credit Agricole SA has been the majority shareholder of  the bank. With a 15.56% interest in the capital, followed by the  participation of SJSC Sacam International (a member of the Credit  Agricole SA group) in the amount of 12.44%, along with which there  are 10 regional Unions of Villagers Mutual Assistance).