Azerbaijan’s Yelo Bank abandons merger plans

Azerbaijan’s Yelo Bank OJSC has abandoned plans to merge with the non-bank credit organization TBC Kredit, in connection with which a strategic partnership agreement was signed with the Georgian TBC Bank in 2018, Anar Hasanov, chairman of the Board of Yelo Bank, told Report.

“As part of the new three-year strategy, approved by the Bank’s Supervisory Board last week, we refused to merge with any financial structures and intend to develop our business on our own. This year has started well for us and our bank is already in fourth place in terms of profitability. We finished the first quarter with a profit of more than 5.5 million manats,” Hasanov said.

He noted that the main goal of the bank in the coming years is to change the direction of business development from corporate to retail, in particular, the emphasis will be put on the development of medium, small and micro businesses: “The priority for the bank is also to meet the needs of individuals in banking services,” said the head of Yelo Bank.

After the merger, TBC Bank was supposed to own up to 10 percent of the combined credit structure. TBC Bank intended to leverage its expertise in the Georgian banking sector, including its newly created fully digital bank Kosmos, to support growth of Nikoil Bank (former name of Yelo Bank) in targeted retail markets and SME lending.

TBC Bank also planned to receive a three-year call option to acquire additional shares in the combined entity to achieve 50%+ 1 share.

TBC Kredit is a non-bank credit organization that has been operating in Azerbaijan since 1999. It mainly focuses on the SME, consumer and mortgage sectors. The share of Georgian TBC Bank in the capital of TBC Kredit is 75 percent.

Yelo Bank has been operating in Azerbaijan since 1994. The bank’s shareholders are Topaz INVESTMENT (91.84%), NIKoil Joint Stock Company (7.97%) and ISR Holding (0.19%).