Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 October / Trend / Unibank CB and the Netherlands' financial company FMO (Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V.) have signed a credit line agreement for $15mln to finance mortgage projects, the bank said on 6 October.
The proceeds of the credit line will be used to finance the projects concerned with purchase, modernization, repairs or construction of mortgage objects, as well as to re-finance mortgage credits.
"It is especially important for us that the trust that the overseas investors have in our Bank remains solid even at the time of the global financial crisis," comments Faig Huseynov, Chairman of the Management Board of Unibank. Unibank was in receipt of two new credit lines for development of the mortgage business in only a few months past, one being from the International Finance Corporation and the other one from FMO. Both credit lines come under the conditions that are beneficial to the creditors as well as to our Bank. This enables us to put reasonable interest rates on the credits that we give to our customers."
The mortgage finance credit line from FMO will be assimilated in two equal tranches equaling $7.5mln.
It should be mentioned that Unibank twice borrowed credit lines from FMO before. On 11 December 2006, Unibank and FMO signed a credit line agreement for $5 mn to finance SME projects, and on 13 December the same year Unibank became the first recipient of a subordinated credit (from FMO) in the history of the banking system of Azerbaijan. The subordinated credit equalling $5 mn provided an added source to rely upon to form the 2nd tier capital of Unibank.
FMO awarded Unibank the $1.5mln limit pertaining to trade finance projects, as well.
Unibank is one of the largest private banks in Azerbaijan. In terms of its financials, Unibank is in the top three banks of Azerbaijan. The paid-up authorized capital of Unibank equals AZN 15mln. In the first half of this year, the consolidated capital of Unibank exceeded AZN 66.6mln. According to the results of the first half of 2008 year, the assets of Unibank equaled AZN 479.4mln while the loan portfolio of Unibank is in excess of AZN 358.8mln.
Among the shareholders of Unibank is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the German Investment Corporation - DEG.
In 2008, Fitch Ratings confirmed the ratings of Unibank as follows: the long-term rating of issuer's default as "B-", the short-term rating of the issuer's default as "B", the individual rating as "D/E", the support rating as "5" and the level of support for the long-term rating of the issuer's default as "no support level". The outlook on the long-term rating of the issuer's default was kept as "stable".
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