YEREVAN, August 4. /ARKA/. Armenian banks will keep merging throughout three to five years, Armen Khandkaryan, director general of Areximbank-Gazprom Group, said in an interview with ARKA News Agency.

He thinks that as a rule, mergers have favorable impacts on the economy. “Only two banks reportedly merged recently,” he said. “I think this process will continue and we’ll witness similar mergers in coming three or five years.”

Khandkaryan said banks wouldn’t merge because of critical changes, adverse things or restructuring of bad banks.

He thinks these mergers will be prompted by the intensifying competition.
Areximbank-Gazprombank Group (former Areximbank, renamed on June 12, 2009) was established in August 1998 for supporting entrepreneurship and serving financial flows between Russia and Armenia.

The bank is a member of VISA International and MasterCard International payment systems.

In 2007, the bank joined ArCa acquiring.

In November 2007, Russian Gazprombank acquired bought 80% of Areximbank’s shares.
In July 2008, Areximbank issued additional bonds, which were bough by Gaprombank as well.
As a result, Gazprombank’s share in Areximbank reached 94.15%.

In September 2008, Gazprombank bought the remaining 5.85% from Raiffeisenbank and is now the sole owner of the bank.

According to ARKA News Agency’s data, the assets of Areximbank-Gazprombank Group totaled AMD 49.2 billion and liabilities AMD 35 billion by June 30, 2010.

Its total capital amounted to AMD 14.3 billion, authorized capital AMD 12.3 billion and credit portfolio AMD 33 billion.

The bank’s liabilities to clients totaled AMD 19.1 billion.

Its net profit for the first half of 2010 amounted to AMD 270.3 million. –0—