Azerbaijan, Baku, June 19 / Trend /
Unibank Commercial Bank is the first private bank in Azerbaijan to receive the largest financial package from the IFI in the history of private banking in the country.
On June 16, the EBRD Board of Directors decided to make a package deal with Unibank for the amount of $83 million. This decision was made together with the German investment group DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH), the Netherlands financial company of development (FMO) and the Austrian Bank of Development (OeEB) to increase the lending capacity of Unibank in the real sector of the Azeri economy. The funding from the EBRD will equal $42.7 million including the main debt to equal $18.5 million. The contributions of DEG, FMO and OeEB will equal USD 14.8 million, USD 15 million and USD 10 million respectively. A part of the funding provided by the overseas shareholders of Unibank will be formalised as investment going into the share capital of Unibank.
"The receipt of the major financial package against the backdrop of the global financial and economic crisis is another proof of the high confidence that the international investors maintain in Unibank,' Faig Huseynov, Chairman of the Management Board of Unibank, said. He said this is the largest packaged deal in the history of private banking in Azerbaijan. In spite of instability and reduced liquidity in the world capital markets, the successful implementation of the past projects together with the IFI as well as the timely fulfillment of the relevant liabilities enabled Unibank to attract additional funds to finance small and medium businesses, he said.
Unibank, one of the largest banks in the country, is in the top ten of the local banking sector in terms of its financials. The authorized and total capitals of Unibank equal 30 million manat and 75.5 million manat respectively. The assets and the loan portfolio of Unibank exceeded 366.7 million manat and 267 million manat respectively on June, 1 2009. Among the shareholders of Unibank are EBRD (15.15%) and DEG (8.33%).
On June 19, the official exchange rate is 0. 804 manat to $1.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]