Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani government increases IBA stake

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has bought another chunk of equity in the country’s largest bank, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), another indicator that its banking sector needs propping up to survive.

IBA issued more shares on Jan. 26, allowing the government to increase its stake in it to 76.73% from 54.96%.

The share purchase appears to fly in the face of a statement by Rufat Aslanli, chairman of Azerbaijan’s financial supervisory agency who said in November that the government would privatise IBA in 2017.

The Trend news agency quoted an IBA statement as saying that the government stake increase was needed to shore up the stability of the bank and to protect it from the downturn. Analysts have been warning that Azerbaijan’s banking sector is particularly fragile with many borrowers unable to repay loans. Azerbaijan’s economy shrank by 3.8% last year and its manat currency has halved in value.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Azerbaijan’s Socar wants Turkey petrol stations

JAN. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Socar Turkey Energy director general Zaur Gahramanov said the company was committed to opening a chain of petrol stations throughout Turkey.

Socar is bidding to buy the 1,785 petrol stations belonging to Austria’s OMV in Turkey. Even if Socar’s bid fails it will look to buy up petrol stations in Turkey. Socar owns the Star Refinery in Izmir. The $6b refinery is due to start production in April 2018 and is Socar’s biggest overseas investment.

“The acquisition of OMV Petrol Ofisi is the most suitable option for Socar, but we have alternatives,” he said. “We can launch talks on the acquisition of another company or create a new network in Turkey.”

Socar owns a network of petrol stations in Georgia and has been looking to expand. The collapse in oil and gas prices since 2014 has forced Azerbaijan to change its focus to downstream products and services.

OMV bought the petrol stations between 2006 and 2010 for $2.5b. Aramco, Petromium-C consortium and Vitol are also bidding to buy the petrol station network.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Korea gives loan to Azerbaijan’s Socar

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s state Export-Import bank EximBank has given Azerbaijan’s Socar a $500m loan to build a carbamide plant in Sumgait near Baku. Carbamide, also known as urea, is a chemical used either as a fertiliser or in the plastics industry. South Korea will view the loan as a way of extending relations between the two countries. The EximBank loan covers around two- third of the cost of the plant which will come online in 2018. South Korea’s Samsung Engineering is the main contractor.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f

Korea gives loan to Azerbaijan’s Socar

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f

Azerbaijan’s court jails activist

JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Azerbaijan sentenced Elgiz Gahraman, a 31-year-old opposition youth activist, to 5-1/2 years in prison for drug-related offences. The New York- based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that in August 2016 Gahraman had been taken by police to a station in Baku, beaten and forced to sign a confession that he had been carrying heroin and intended to sell it. HRW has accused the Azerbaijani authorities of using bogus charges to imprison people it considers to be troublemakers.

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