Azerbaijan, Baku, March 29 /Trend A.Akhundov/
Azerbaijan's Pasha bank intends to attract loans from abroad and direct them to finance small and medium enterprises in the country.
Chairman of the Board Farid Ahundov mentioned it at a press conference on the results of the Bank for 2011 on Thursday.
"Preference in financing will be given to areas of agriculture, transport, information technology, tourism and trade," Ahundov said.
He noted that the bank will enhance its activities in this direction after the results of the international rating organisations.
The bank intends to obtain ratings from two out of the three big agencies (Moody's, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's) towards the end of the year and is already in negotiations to this end.
Pasha Bank issued loans worth 234 million manat in 2011, an increase of 24.56 percent compared to 2010. In 2011, 45.16 per cent of the loan portfolio consisted of loans granted to the trade and services sector, 24.5 per cent the processing industry, 15.16 per cent construction, 8.13 per cent the hotel business and 7.05 per cent in other sectors.
PASHA Bank was established in June 2007 and operates under licence from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan dated Jan.28, 2007.
The Bank, along with Pasha Insurance, PASHA Life, Pasha Travel and Pasha Construction, is included in the Pasha Holding Company which is actually an investment company, but not a classic holding company. Kapital Bank is also included in the structure of the Pasha Group. The Holding owns 99.75 per cent of the shares in the bank.
Pasha Bank shareholders are: PASA Holding with 60 per cent, ADOR Ltd with 30 percent and Arif Pashayev with 10 percent.
Official exchange rate on March 29 is 0.7862 AZN/USD