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Azerbaijani bank ready to support domestic business in Georgia and Turkey

Business Materials 5 February 2015 14:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 5

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

PASHA Bank OJSC plans to become a regional bank to support the business not only in Azerbaijan but also in Georgia and Turkey in the next three years as part of a new strategic period, head of PASHA Bank department for legal and organizational issues Shirin Aliyeva told Trend.

"Currently, Azerbaijani business is greatly represented in these countries," she said. "It needs support for trade and project finance, as well as consultative assistance in connection with fund-raising. I think that PASHA Bank can act not only as a commercial bank but as an investment partner."

Turkey's Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency approved PASHA Bank's purchasing 79.9 percent of TAIB Bank's shares on December 29, 2014 and increasing its share capital from 80 million liras to 255 million liras. Aksoy Holding is the owner of the remaining package of shares worth 51 million liras, which is 20.1 percent.

TAIB Bank will be the second subsidiary bank of PASHA Bank. The first foreign subsidiary of the bank - PASHA Bank Georgia has been operating in Georgia since February 2013.

Aliyeva said that many bank customers are interested in the development of its regional representative office.

"Today, many our clients work with PASHA Bank Georgia," she said. "I think that the same situation will be observed in Turkey as more than 4,500 Azerbaijani companies have been registered in Istanbul."

The department head believes that PASHA Bank can be a good partner for the businessmen who have interregional trade relations in terms of financing the projects.

"PASHA Bank became the first bank to receive a license to carry out banking activities in Turkey and was licensed as an investment bank," she said.

At the same time, the department head reminded that the investment banking in a new vector for the Azerbaijani market and added that PASHA Bank became a pioneer in this issue.

"We are starting to closely work with the Turkish colleagues," she said and expressed hope that 2015 will be successful with this regard.

"We provide support in legal matters as well," she said. "Moreover, there are people working at TAIB Bank with work experience in the largest banks of the world and we have much to learn from them."

The assets of PASHA Bank increased by 82.7 percent in 2014 and reached 1.287 billion AZN.

The bank's loan portfolio increased by 60.4 percent compared to 2013 and stood at 545.2 million AZN, while its deposit portfolio increased by 2.8 times and totaled 657.47 million AZN. The total volume of deposits of individuals in PASHA Bank totaled 195.2 million AZN (a 64.5-percent increase) as of late 2014.

The aggregate capital of PASHA Bank increased by 46.7 percent in a year and stood at 340.1 million AZN.

PASHA Bank is a leading corporate bank of Azerbaijan. The bank was founded in 2007. It provides a range of corporate banking services including issuing of loans, operations in the securities market, asset management, and treasury services. PASHA Bank was declared 'The Best Investment Bank of Azerbaijan' by the Europe Banking Awards-2011 and Europe Banking Awards-2012 and 'The Best Private Banking in Azerbaijan' by World Finance in 2013.

PASHA Bank is a part of PASHA Group - a major investment-holding group in Azerbaijan, which also includes significant assets in insurance, property development, production of construction materials, tourism and other businesses. Kapital Bank, one of the largest retail banks in Azerbaijan, is also owned by PASHA Group.

The official exchange rate on Feb.5 is 0.7844 AZN/USD.

Edited by CN
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Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli

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