RA Central Bank Welcomes the Issuance of Ucom Bonds

An event announcing the issuance of the first tranche of bonds by Ucom, the first non-financial company to issue bonds in 2019, took place a few days ago. The RA Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, the Deputy Chairman of the RA Central Bank Nerses Yeritsyan and a number of representatives of the Armenian business community were among the guests.

“This is a new beginning for both Ucom and other companies to have a better financial market and to be able to raise more funds and have new economic growth. I am sure that the bonds issued by our company will find their buyers faster than we have imagined. The money raised through the sale of bonds will be directed towards capital investments in our company and development of the Software as a Service (SaaS) strategic direction,” said Hayk Yesayan, the Co-founder and Director General at Ucom.

The volume of bond issue is $5 million with annual yield of 7.5%, and 250 million AMD with annual yield of 11%. The nominal coupon bonds with a maturity period of 36 months will be placed through “Armenbrok” OJSC during the period from 16 May to 15 July 2019.

“This is the first time after a long break when a non-financial company comes up with such initiative, to which we attach great importance. This is also in line with the Government’s strategy. It is a good opportunity for the company to “feel” the business environment, understand the intentions of investors and only after that take a bigger step forward. At least we have that expectation. I hope that this will set an example for other companies, boost fair competition in the market and attract more investors. The number of such investors all over the world exceed some one trillion companies ready to invest in countries like ours and buy bonds with such high interest rates. As a representative of the Central Bank, I believe that we have all the necessary infrastructures in place for bond issue at both local and international level. We express our readiness to assist in the implementation of bigger ideas,” said Nerses Yeritsyan, the Deputy Chairman of the RA Central Bank.

During the event it was emphasized that the issue of Ucom bonds was beneficial for all parties – the issuer, investors, the underwriter and the state both in terms of consistency of the securities market and promotion of the economy.

“Such bond issues revive and develop the securities market and economy, since savings flow directly into the real sector of economy. The issuing company actually becomes more transparent and accountable and begins to share their income with their customers,” said Aram Kayfajyan, the General Director of “Armenbrok”  investment company.

The representatives of the business sector also emphasized the importance of involvement of investment banks in the development of the capital market, calling it the cornerstone of organic growth.

“Finally, we have a company that dared attracting investments from the public sector, which is truly inspiring. I hope that the issuance of bonds by Ucom will be exemplary. I’m hopeful, in the coming year, there will be new releases in circulation by other companies as well. Compared to the results of 2015 when we had less than 10 new issuances to get listed on the stock exchange, now over 30 bonds are issued each year. Compared to the volume of issue of only $13 million in 2016, in 2017 and 2018 this index exceeds the threshold of $150 million. At the moment we have corporate bonds with face value of $300 million, and state bonds exceed the threshold of $1 billion. That is, we have growth dynamics, and one of the most significant incentives is the first issue of bonds of this year by a non-financial entity,” said Hayk Yeganyan, the Director of Armenia Securities Exchange.

Let us add that the bulletin of bonds’ public offering was registered by the Central Bank of Armenia.