Tashkent, Uzbekistan, May 21
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
Uzbek Savdogar bank, belonging to a group of medium banks in the country, began placing shares worth eight billion soums, the bank's management told Trend on May 19.
It is planning to increase its authorized capital by 1.2 times - up to 50 billion soums.
A decision on increasing the authorized capital was made at the annual general shareholders' meeting in March 2014, the bank said.
The bank intends to place 80 million ordinary shares with a par value of 100 soums each by late 2014, according to a shareholders decision.
The bank's authorized capital has been formed at 42 billion soums and consists of 418.5 million ordinary shares and 1.5 million preferred shares worth 100 soums each.
The Savdogar Bank was established by a government decree in 1994 to serve Uzbekistan's trade and commercial enterprises. In April 2006, the German R&D Express-Aussenhandels GmbH acquired a 40 percent stake in the bank worth $2 million. In July of that year by a special decree of the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, the Savdogar joint-stock commercial bank for facilitating trade and commerce was transformed into the Savdogar Uzbek-German joint-stock commercial bank.
Due to a decline in the share of R&D Express-Aussenhandels Gmb to 25.6 percent, the bank changed its name from the Uzbek-German joint-stock commercial bank to an open joint-stock commercial bank with foreign capital in June 2012.
Uzbek Savdogar Bank increased its assets in 2013 by 38.3 percent up to 374.86 billion soum.
The bank's loan portfolio last year grew by 64.3 percent, up to 261.55 billion soum and liabilities by 41.4 percent up to 326.7 billion soum.
Savdogar's total capital of increased by 18.4 percent amounting to 48.16 billion soums.
As of 2013, Savdogar Bank earned 11.3 billion soums of net profit compared to 8.218 billion soums in the previous year, a 37.5 percent increase.
At present, Swiss Astrata AG holding 25.82 percent, All Americas International, INC. (20.15 percent) and Khorezm Shakar JSC (Khorezm Sugar Plant) at 23.1 percent are the largest shareholders of the bank.
The official exchange rate is 2288.33 soums/$1 on May 21.
edited by CN