YEREVAN, November 28. /ARKA/. On November 22, 2016, the Central Bank of Armenia gave its preliminary approval to Ardshinbank’s merger with Areximbank-Gazprombank Group, the two banks reported Friday in their joint press release.

As a result, Areximbank-Gazprombank Group no longer will be a separate legal entity, and all its rights and liabilities will go to Ardshinbank CJSC. The merged bank will operate at the market under Ardshinbank brand.

According to the press release, at this stage, the addresses of Ardshinbank and Areximbank’s branches and their contact data remain unchanged – ardshinbank.am и areximbank.am.
Ardshinban and Areximbank will continue servicing their clients as before in compliance with their contractual terms.

After the merger, Ardshinbank’s total capital will amount to AMD 74 billion and assets will total AMD 540 billion. Its commercial network will consist of AMD 74 billion.

This means Ardshinbank will become the biggest Armenian bank for its capital, assets and the number of branches.

The merger will allow uniting advanced technologies, services and high-qualified specialists’ efforts.

This will build up a great deal Ardshinbank’s capacity allowing it to provide a wider range of high-quality corporate and retail banking services.

On October 7, 2016, a deal was stricken, in accordance with which 100% of the shares of the Areximbank-Gazprombank Group were sold to ‘Region’ Financial Industrial Corporation CJSC, whose sole shareholder is its final beneficiary and chairman, Karen Safaryan.

Ardshinbank CJSC (Ardshininvestbank before renamed Ardshinbank on November 13, 2014) was registered in February 2003. Ardshinbank has 56 branches, one of the largest branch networks in the country.

The bank's assets totaled AMD 442.2 billion in late September 2016 (10.43% growth) and liabilities AMD 389.1 billion (10.55% growth).

Its total capital amounted to AMD 53 billion (9.5% growth), authorized capital AMD 19.6 billion and credit exposure AMD 318.7 billion (16.14% growth).

The bank's profit for the first nine months of this year amounted to AMD 3 435.6 million.

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.

In 2007, it became a subsidiary of Russia’s biggest bank, Gazprombank.
Areximbank-Gazprombank Group has 16 branches – nine in provinces and seven in the capital city and one service point.

According to ARKA News Agency’s data, the assets of Areximbank-Gazprombank Group totaled AMD 90.7 billion in late September 2016 (3% decline since the beginning of the year) and liabilities AMD 69.9 billion (0.7% decline). Its total capital amounted to AMD 20.8 billion (10% decline), authorized capital AMD 30.59 billion and credit exposure AMD 39.3 billion (6.4% decline).

The bank ended the third quarter with losses totaling AMD 2 290.4 million against AMD 182.7 million losses in the same period a year before.

After the merging process will be over, as many as 18 banks will remain in Armenia.

In late 2014, the central bank put a new requirement to commercial banks – their authorized capital must amount to no less than AMD 30 billion instead of the former 5 billion. In compliance with the requirement, commercial banks started building up their capital or merging. The requirement comes into force on January 1, 2017. ($1 – AMD 479.4). --0-----