Press Release

OFID and AMRAHBANK begin co-operation
US$2.0 million financing agreement signed

53/2009 December 16, 2009 Vienna, Austria
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The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and the Amrahbank based in Azerbaijan have signed an agreement for US$2.0 million financing from OFID to assist Amrahbank in increasing its trade finance market coverage in Azerbaijan. Until recently, most trade finance activities in the country were undertaken by large, state-owned banks.

OFID’s main objective for the Trade Finance Facility (TFF) is to further enhance the promotion of economic development by supporting the trade financing needs of institutions in partner countries.  For OFID, conducting trade finance operations is seen as a natural progression, complementing its range of other development products, including long- and medium-term project financing in the public and private sectors.

The OFID/Amrahbank agreement was initialled by the Director-General of OFID, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, and Mr. Emil M. Mammadov, Chairman, Management Board of Amrahbank.

At the signature ceremony, Mr. Al-Herbish said OFID had an established history of co-operation with Azerbaijan through its support to public sector projects. As for trade finance, Mr. Al-Herbish noted, Azeri banks were among the first clients to benefit from OFID’s newly established trade finance facility. He said this line of credit to Amrahbank represented OFID’s ninth private/trade finance operation in Azerbaijan.

Mr. Mammadov, in his own statement, declared that: “ Amrahbank is a growing bank operating in a growing economy and there is a need and demand both within our customers and in Azerbaijan generally for financing facilities from multilaterals like OFID.  We are therefore very pleased to have extended our international ties with OFID which will mean we can extend loans to good growing businesses. We value OFID’s contributions to Azerbaijan’s social and economic environment and are delighted to have partnered with OFID to jointly realise this goal. Most crucially we hope this will be a key platform that we can build on for future co-operation.”

Amrahbank intends to utilize the trade facility of OFID for the benefit of its current and potential corporate customers engaged in import of goods into Azerbaijan covering sectors such as telecommunication, food, manufacturing and consumer goods.

About Amrahbank

Established in 1993, Amrahbank offers a wide range of retail and corporate banking products such as deposits, loans, money transfers, documentary transactions and investment advisory services. Amrahbank is one of the most profitable banks of Azerbaijan. It has one of the largest branch networks (across Baku and different regions of Azerbaijan) and equity base. The Bank is a member of various professional organisations such as the Deposit Insurance Fund, National Entrepreneurship Fund and Azerbaijan Banks Association. A recent strategic partnership with the International Investment Bank based in Bahrain (through a 49% shareholding), has played a key role in further developing many areas of Amrahbank including corporate governance, international cooperation and product and services quality.

 

For more information on Amrahbank, please visit www.Amrahbank.com