YEREVAN, November 8. / ARKA /. The National Mortgage Company plans to place November 24 the first issue of its bonds worth 1 billion drams with a six month maturity period, Mher Yedigaryan, the executive director of the company, said in a newspaper interview.

He said the small amount of the issue and short-term maturity period are due to the fact that this will be the first attempt of the company in this area. He said the purpose is to try to introduce itself to the market and understand the expectations of investors. Yedigaryan said the proceeds form the placement will be used to refinance mortgage loans.

"The bonds will be auctioned and their profitability will be determined during the auction, but we expect it to be 0.25 percentage points higher than the yields of other bonds with the same maturity," he said.

He said given the demand for bonds, the company plans to make two placements in 2012, worth 1 billion and 3-5 billion drams. He said the amount of issues as well as the maturity period will rise in 2013-2014.

The National Mortgage Company was established in 2009. According to ARKA’s data, its assets as of September 30, 2011 stood at 14.7 billion drams, the liabilities at 6.1 billion drams and total assets at 8.5 billion drams. In the first nine months of 2011 it earned 251 million drams in net profits. ($1 - 380.47 AMD).  -0-