YEREVAN, March 9. /ARKA/. Unibank reported Thursday about its first payment of interim dividends to shareholders in stocks.

To pay them these dividends the bank issued extra stocks totaling AMD 3.2 billion (in market prices for stocks), Unibank’s press office reports.

On December 9, 2016, the bank decided to pay interim dividends in ordinary registered shares – 420 shares for the bought 4,348 shares, which is equal to a 12.9% annual yield.

“This decision was prompted by Unibank’s successful activity,” the press release says. “The bank’s development strategy and dividend policy were taken into account as well. A high yield is one of the important elements of shares, as beneficial and competitive long-term investment instrument.”

The dividends will be paid from the bank’s accumulated profits, which exceeded AMD 7.2 billion by November 30, 2016.

The list of the entities having a right for receiving interim dividends in shares was composed on November 28, 2016.

Unibank enjoyed positive financial results in 2016 in all the key segments of its activity and continued building up its profits.

The bank’s assets totaled AMD 186.4 billion and liabilities AMD 150.7 billion. Its total capital has grown 57.2% since the beginning of 2016 reaching over AMD 35.7 billion by the end of the year.

In February 2017, Moody’s Investor Service confirmed Unibank’s ratings leaving its outlook ‘Positive’ unchanged.

The bank’s profit for 2016 amounted to AMD 425.6 million. It transferred AMD 2.6 billion to the government budget in 2016 and ranked 49th among the country’s 1000 biggest taxpayers.

Unibank OJSC is the first bank in Armenia to place stocks via IPO and to conduct listing at NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange.

”Demand for Unibank stocks shows how high public and investors’ confidence in it is,” the bank says in its press release. “This confidence is based on the bank’s stable financial state, development prospects and effectiveness. Placing its shares, Unibank continues putting its strategy into practice, as the people’s bank, attracting the public to the management of the bank and so making this process more effective and transparent to clients and investors.”

Unibank’s press office stresses that the bank’s strategy implies constant enhancement of its investment attractiveness with observance of rights and interests of all shareholders and promotion of formation of investment culture in Armenia.

Unibanks was established in October 2001. In 2002, it introduced Unistream system. The bank’s principal shareholder is Ripatonso Holdings Ltd. In 2015, the bank was reorganized into an open joint stock company. --0---