BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 15
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
International Finance Corporation (IFC) has placed a new issue of Samarkand bonds to transform the Joint-Stock Commercial Mortgage Bank Ipoteka Bank and support its subsequent privatization, Trend report referring to the press service of IFC.
The bonds, placed at the London Stock Exchange, are denominated in Uzbek soums in the amount of more than 363 billion soums ($35 million).
The proceeds from the sale of bonds will be directed to Ipoteka Bank JSCIB as a loan to increase lending to Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) with the possibility of further converting the loan into bank shares.
According to the information, this issue of bonds is the largest placement of Samarkand bonds by IFC, which shows a steady interest in Uzbekistan from international investors.
In addition, Ipoteka Bank JSCIB continues to improve its corporate governance practice and operational activities. The bank became the first financial institution with a state share in Uzbekistan, in the Supervisory Board of which the majority of seats were occupied by independent directors, and it was also headed by an independent director.
It was noted that this decision was made to improve the efficiency of the Supervisory Board, a body that plays a key role in corporate governance and defining the bank's strategy, as well as in strengthening its independence.
Ipoteka Bank JSCIB has also achieved significant success in ensuring the operational autonomy of the institution. The bank has successfully reorganized its structure and made a clear separation between different groups of business segments (retail, SMEs, corporate), operations and administrative functions, as well as introduced customer segmentation and established baselines for profit and loss for each business segment.
The bank also began work on the reorganization of the information technology architecture together with the leading CIS providers of banking IT solutions with the support of IFC experts.
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