YEREVAN, October 31. /ARKA/. Ardshinbank is closely eyeing all potential mergers of banks in Armenia, Ardshinbank Board Chairman Mher Grigoryan said in an exclusive interview to ARKA news agency.

On October 7, 2016, ‘Region’ financial and industrial corporation acquired all 100% shares of Areximbank-Gazprombank Group. The only shareholder of Region is Karen Safaryan, a Russia-based Armenian businessmen, who is president of Ardshinbank Council.

According to Mher Grigoryan, Ardshinbank has a huge experience in conducting such operations effectively, and in this sense it is ahead of potential buyers.

He also noted that the bank is closely eyeing a number of players believing that their merger with the bank would allow it to get a good synergetic effect both for their shareholders and employees, the Ardshinbank’s shareholder and its team.

Ardshinbank’s assets in the first 9 months of 2017 amounted to 501.6 billion drams (down 8.5% year-on-year). Its liabilities declined by 8.28% to 437.4 billion drams, while its total capital declined by 10.2% to 64.18 billion. The bank closed the first 9 months of 2017 with a profit of 4.4 billion drams, up from 3.4 billion drams posted for the same period last year. ($ 1- 482, 36 drams) -0-