Azerbaijan, Baku, June 19 / Trend /
Unibank Commercial Bank became one of the investors in the market for the bonds of the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund (AMF) by buying the bonds worth AZN 1.354 mn on 16 June. The market investment portfolio of Unibank thus accounts for more than 9% of the total primary offering of the AMF bonds (AZN 15 mn) organised at the auction at the Baku Stock Exchange. The Unibank Management looks upon the acquisition of the AMF bonds as a profitable opportunity to regulate excess liquidity.
Unibank's affiliated company Unicapital provided the brokerage services in the stock market. Being one of the founders of the BSE and main players in the securities market of Azerbaijan, Unicapital OJSC acted as a broker providing for the acquisition of 4,772 out of the 15,000 bonds issued by the AMF. The company also served as a broker two other major private banks. The lead specialist of Unicapital Heydar Ibrahimli says that the banks are now very in need of reliable instruments to manage their own liquidity.
"We as brokers welcome the issue of the AMF bonds and we think also that the investors will be increasingly interested in the AMF bonds," Mr Ibrahimli commented, adding that the primary offering should be considered as an added opportunity to re-direct the private bank capital to the housing construction market. Also, this can be the first step taken towards bringing financial instruments related to re-finance of the activity of the specialised mortgage funds to the financial market of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's State Securities Committee registered the prospectus of the AMF bond issue on 29 May. The issue is worth AZN 55 mn and bears the interest rate that equals 3% annually. According to the prospectus, the AMF will place its bonds through open subscription via the brokerage companies at the BSE.
On June 19, the official exchange rate is 0.804 manat to $1.