Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) hopes to start emitting bonds in Azerbaijani manats in the near future, the bank's head office told Trend July 9.
At the same time, the source told Trend that, the EBRD can not disclose specific dates of emission of manat bonds.
"Currently, we continue the process of discussing this issue with the Financial Markets Supervision Chamber of Azerbaijan. First of all, it is necessary to amend the legal framework so that we can emit manat bonds. The emission of bonds in the national currency remains a priority for us. We would like to thank the Chamber for its close cooperation and hope that we will be able to start issuing bonds in the near future, but I can't point out any specific dates," the head office stated.
The EBRD announced its intention to issue manat bonds in Azerbaijan in 2016.
The Baku office of the EBRD told Trend that the manat bonds will be sold within Azerbaijan and the issue of the bond delivery to the foreign markets can be considered in the future.
The source also told Trend that, the bank aims to continue issuing loans in the national currency.
"The EBRD is very interested in continuation of issuance of loans in local currency. We hope that we will sign a few more deals, as we have a large number of potential customers interested in manat loans," the source told Trend.
In late 2017, the EBRD allocated the first corporate loan for Azerbaijan in manats. The loan was allocated for METAK company, the producer of plastic and metal pipes. The loan amount was eight million euros in manat equivalent.
Azerbaijan has been cooperating with the EBRD since 1992. Since then, the bank has invested more than $3 billion in 165 projects in the financial, corporate, infrastructure and energy sectors of Azerbaijan
Meanwhile, 26 percent of investments fall on the private sector.
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