Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 31
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) continues negotiations with the Azerbaijani government regarding acquisition of a part of the state's stake in the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the EBRD head office told Trend Jan. 31.
"Indeed, this is something we are still discussing with the relevant authorities in Azerbaijan," the head office said. “It is of course a very ambitious project and will require certain amount of time before it can be properly considered, approved and implemented."
Earlier, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti said that the EBRD would be happy to help in restructuring and refocusing of the IBA.
Chakrabarti said that in case of reforming the corporate governance system in IBA, EBRD may consider an opportunity of becoming a shareholder of the Azerbaijani bank.
The International Bank of Azerbaijan is at the stage of recovery since July 2015, which is related to preparations for privatization of the bank's state-owned shares.
To restore the bank's financial position, the distressed assets of the bank were transferred to state-owned Aqrarkredit non-bank credit organization. Aqrarkredit provides IBA with liquid assets in exchange for distressed assets.
Restructuring of IBA’s foreign liabilities has been recently completed.
Azerbaijan has been a member of EBRD since 1992. Since then, the bank has invested about $2.8 billion in Azerbaijan’s economy.