YEREVAN, 31 May. /ARKA/. Unibank’s general annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for June 1, will sum up the Bank’s performance in 2015 and outline further development prospects, the Yerevan-based bank said today in a press release.
‘After achieving a new level of activity and securing a substantial increase in assets, in 2015 Unibank decided to reorganize into a public company and become a most open public bank. Today Unibank ojsc is the first Armenian bank to have conducted the initial public offering (IPO) of shares at NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange and have them listed for trading. The minimum package of freely tradable shares of the bank is 10%.
As a result of the first IPO the number of shareholders grew to 186. This in mind, Unibank is paying special attention to improvement of corporate governance, as well as to ensuring public awareness and transparency.
At the end of 2015 Unibank assets stood at about 158 billion drams, liabilities – at 135 billion drams and its capital – at 22.7 billion drams. The Bank earned a profit of 358 million drams and continued to show positive growth. As a result of the diversification of the loan portfolio the share of retail loans grew to 52%, the share of lending to SME upped to 28% and corporate lending grew to 20%.
The Bank’s loan portfolio exceeded 110 billion drams, term deposits amounted to 91 billion drams, and demand liabilities to 12 billion drams. The number of active bank cards grew to 185,000 and the turnover at service points grew to 73 billion drams. In 2015, the Bank handled more than 309,000 remittances.
Last year, Unibank also expanded significantly international cooperation working actively in the framework of loan programs with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), as well as the European Investment Bank (EIB). Private European funds are now showing interest in the Bank’s credit programs.
Given the significant interest of investors in shares and bonds as long-term investment instruments, Unibank announced earlier this month a plan to place another 12.2 million ordinary shares worth 2.8 billion drams through an SPO at NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange. The nominal value of a share is 100 drams; the placement price is 230 drams. The least package of shares available for buying is worth one million drams. The placement is to be handled by Armenbrok firm.
As a public company with a large number of private shareholders, Unibank pays great attention to the protection of the rights and interests of minority shareholders, as well as to timely provision of full information about its activities and results. In 2015, the annual Mercury award ceremony recognized Unibank as the best in Armenia in the category of “People’s Bank”.
In accordance with the Development Strategy for 2016-2020, Unibank expects its share in the overall amount of deposits of the banking sector to grow to 9% by 2020; the share in retail businesses to 13%, and the share in SME lending to 9.5%. It also expects the number of customers to increase to 430,000 and the amount of capital to 42 billion drams. These factors are expected to secure a profit of 5 billion drams by 2020.
Today Unibank’s network of services includes 45 branches and 54 promo points. It also cooperates with 100 trade and service outlets to offer consumer loans. The Bank is involved in a number of sponsorship, charity and social programs, aimed at improving financial literacy and providing assistance to education, art and sports.
“Unibank will continue shaping its fiscal policy, based on customers and shareholders’ interests, and to pursue the goal of being one of the most popular financial structures enabling maximum profit for investors,” the press release says.
Unibank was founded in October 2001. In 2002 it introduced Unistream system. Some 93.5% of its shares are held by Glovery Holding LTD. ($1 – 477.66 drams). -0-
