Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 12
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
Azerbaijani investment company PASHA Capital intends to expand activity in the country and render more services to its clients, director of the investment company Jeyhun Hajiyev told Trend.
"The country’s current legislation allows investment companies to render a wide range of services beginning from financial consulting and ending with asset management services,” he added. “Today, PASHA Capital focuses on transactions at the Baku Stock Exchange, rendering securities underwriting services and consulting services for its clients."
“The company plans to add asset management to its list of services soon,” Hajiyev said. “PASHA Capital notes the growing interest of its customers in this service every year.”
"Presently, we see local companies’ great interest in investing in foreign securities [bonds] having a reliable rating,” he said. “From the point of view of profitability, they are also more attractive than bank deposit products. Given this interest in the market, PASHA Capital conducts corresponding consultations with its clients and renders the necessary support."
PASHA Capital ready to hedge risks of foreign investors
“The biggest interest of foreign investors in the Azerbaijani stock market was observed in 2007-2015,” Hajiyev said.
"Presently, foreign investors are taking a wait-and-see approach,” he said. “This is connected to the fact that there are not many interesting issuers in the market whose bonds are denominated in dollars.”
“As for securities issued in national currency, foreign investors think about possible currency fluctuations, and not every company can render a corresponding service of insuring against this type of market risk,” Hajiyev said.
“PASHA Capital offers clients the opportunity to hedge risks in the USD/AZN currency pair,” he said.
"We render our clients such a service as currency forward,” Hajiyev added. “Today, this service is one of the best ways to minimize risks, taking into account currency fluctuations in neighboring countries."
Strengthening positions in Azerbaijan
Speaking about future plans, Hajiyev stressed that last year, PASHA Capital ranked second in terms of turnover in the Baku Stock Exchange, and presently, the company is the leader in terms of the conducted transactions.
“One of the main tasks of the company today is to strengthen its positions in the domestic market,” he added.
“In this regard, PASHA Capital does not see the need for its physical presence in foreign markets,” Hajiyev said. “The company has partners. Through the partners we can work in the markets of the US, Western Europe and Asia.”
As for the development of the local market as a whole, Hajiyev stressed that the Azerbaijani debt market is very promising both in terms of introducing new instruments here and attracting foreign investments.
"Today, we see three potential vectors for development of the market, namely, increasing the corporate bonds with the involvement of market makers, attracting individual clients to participate in the market, and introducing new technologies," Hajiyev added.
According to the Baku Stock Exchange, in January-June 2018, turnover of PASHA Capital amounted to 3.7 billion manats (an increase of 3.36 times compared to the six months of 2017). In 2017, the company's turnover amounted to almost 4.76 billion manats.
(1.7 manats = $1 on Oct. 12)
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