Moody's upgrades Unibank’s long-term local and foreign-currency deposit ratings to B2 with stable outlook

03/30/2017

Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has today upgraded the long-term local and foreign-currency deposit ratings of Armenia's Unibank to B2 with stable outlook, the bank’s press office reported on Friday.

Arka, 10 March 2017

The rating agency has also upgraded Unibank's baseline credit assessment (BCA) to b3.

Concurrently, Moody's affirmed the bank's Counterparty Risk Assessment (CR Assessment) of B2(cr)/Not Prime(cr).

Moody’s says the upgrade of Unibank's deposit ratings is driven by the recent strengthening of its capital position, as a series of capital injections increased the bank's total regulatory capital by 68% in 2016 compared to year-end 2015.

It also says the recent trends in Unibank's asset quality, profitability and funding structure were also moderately positive and supportive of the ratings upgrade.

Unibank’s assets totaled AMD 186.4 billion and liabilities AMD 150.7 billion in 2016. The bank’s total capital exceeded AMD 35.7 billion.

Taking into account its high indicators, stable financial state and development strategy, the bank has decided to pay interim dividends to the bank’s shareholders, whose shares were in the bank’s list as of November 28, 2016.

To pay these dividends Unibank issued extra stocks totaling AMD 3.2 billion (in market prices for stocks). Dividends are being paid for a period between January and September 2016 - 420 shares for the bought 4,348 shares, which is equal to a 12.9% annual yield.

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