...

International Bank of Azerbaijan Calls for Issuance of Third International Rating

Business Materials 19 June 2007 18:56 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr I. Khalilova / The International bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) has put forward the initiative to begin the process of the issuance of a rating for the Azerbaijani Government by the third international rating agency. The deputy president of the IBA, Vagif Akbarov, reported on 18 June at the Azerbaijani rating conference of 'Increase of Transparency and Improvement of Access to Capital' that will enable Azerbaijani economic enterprises the possibility of issuance of the third rating to them.

"As it was with the second issuance, primarily it has to be issued to the country, and later to economic enterprises. We planned to be issued with the second rating as far back as 2004. However, due to delays with the plans of the Government the IBA was refused the rating. The second rating was only issued in 2006, which negatively affects the operations of the IBA," the deputy president said. The rating will allow for attraction of foreign credits at available terms.

The advantage of ratings to the IBA is that the bank has attracted syndicated credits of $326mln and subordinated credits of $100mln. "Taking into consideration the plans of the IBA on the issuance of Eurobonds in the amount of $200mln in October-November of 2007, there is a need for the third rating, as it can provide for more investors," Akbarov noted.

The IBA was issued a long-term rating at the level of BB by Fitch and Ba2 by Moody`s.

Latest

Latest