Interview with the founder and Chairman of the Management Board of Baader Bank, Mr Uto Baader, to Mediamax news agency and Banks.am portal

- What is the purpose of your visit to Armenia and what agreements have you reached here?

- The purpose of my visit was nothing else but just to increase my knowledge of the country and our local partner, Prometey Bank, to meet the owner of the bank and its executive officers.

- You have examined the Armenian financial sector and, particularly, the capital market. What is your opinion on both of them?

- Your capital market is of course a small one, but the banking system is extremely well-organized: it shows extremely good key data, much better ones than in most of the other European countries.

But your capital markets are, as far as I can see, a little bit underdeveloped, especially the market for shares. But as I’ve heard there will be some changes, which will foster a bigger amount of capital market transactions and IPOs.

- During your meeting with Armenian PM you discussed the possibility of promoting several prominent infrastructure projects here in Armenia.

- Exactly. We will have a look at them and will try to find German investors and perhaps as well operators for this kind of projects. It\'s not an easy job, because Armenia is not well known in the investment banking community, and the rating for Armenia is not investment grade. This is a region of political unrest, but we\'ll do our best to find investors to come to Armenia and have a look at the country. We can only do that of course with the support of an Armenian partner.   

- Your Armenian partner, Prometey Bank, has a brokerage account at Baader Bank, which allows its clients to trade with securities listed at European stock exchanges. Do you see activity from Armenian investors and do you plan to expand your bilateral cooperation with Prometey?

- Up to now we have not received clients’ orders, but this is a quite new instrument for the Armenian market. Via Baader Bank they can trade stocks from all over the world; this will increase the scope of their  investment opportunities.

And on the other hand, when in 2014 you will have a new pension plan system in place, I believe that a certain part of capital has to be invested in opportunities outside of Armenia, because your capital  markets are underdeveloped. And we are very well suited to give advice and recommendations to Armenian asset managers in this decision process.  

- Your bank has recently opened a credit line in the amount of €2mln to Prometey Bank. What is the purpose of this credit line?

- We have enabled Prometey Bank to extend its loan portfolio and as far as I know, they have already fully used it.   

- A conference was held in Yerevan this February, during which the specialists of Baader Bank shared their investment instruments with Armenian bankers. Have you received cooperation offers from other Armenian banks?

- Yes, we would like to do business with every appropriate institutional partner in Armenia. And we have already further requests for cooperations.

- Is this your first visit to Armenia? What impressions have you got here?

- Yes, it is my first visit to Armenia. I have been to Lake Sevan, Garni temple, Khor Virap. It is a beautiful country with wonderful landscapes. And I met a lot of very well educated, very polite and very nice people.

I’ve seen things in Armenia I had never dreamed of before, especially in Matenadaran: your cultural heritage is extraordinary, your history very impressing.

And as I was strolling around Yerevan in the evenings, I was amazed of the buzzing life, when everybody was out in the streets having a good time.