YEREVAN, June 17. / ARKA /. Armenian Araratbank plans to make two simultaneous public offerings of its coupon bonds - one at NASDAQ OMX in Armenia, and the other possibly in Estonia, the bank’s Deputy Executive Director, David Harutyunyan said today.

"The bank plans to issue and offer new coupon bonds. We are now at trade marketing stage, conducting pre-marketing studies and considering the possibility of making an IPO through a NASDAQ OMX’s market", he said.

He said the bank’s top managers had a meeting with NASDAQ OMX leadership in Estonia and plan to have similar meetings with leadership of other markets to explore the possibility of an IPO.

Araratbank, previously called Haykap Bank, was founded in 1991 and provides a full range of banking services to corporate, MSME and retail customers. The bank has established a reputation as a small but reliable and dynamically growing financial institution. EBRD holds 25% in Araratbank. The rest is held by Barsegh Beglarian, head of the biggest petrol importing company Flash. Araratbank joined NASDAQ OMX Armenia January 30, 2009.

According to ARKA data, as of March 31, 2011 the bank’s assets totaled 69.9 billion drams, the liabilities stood at 59.1 billion drams, the total capital was worth 10.8 billion drams, the authorized capital stock - 7.1 billion drams, its outstanding credit portfolio stood at 29.2 billion drams, liabilities to clients at 46 billion drams, and net income for the first quarter of 2011 was about 510.2 million drams. The bank operates 34 branches. ($ 1 - 375.67 AMD).-0-