Citi (the “Co-ordinator”, “Bookrunner” and “Initial Mandated Lead Arranger”) has successfully closed and signed a USD 18mln syndicated term loan facility (the “Facility”) for Ardshininvestbank CJSC in Armenia.

Bank ZENIT (Open Joint Stock Company), Federated Investors, London Forfaiting Company Ltd and VTB Bank (Deutscheland) AG, were Joint Lead Arrangers. Atlantic Forfaitierungs AG and OJSC Promsvyazbank also joined the facility as Lenders.

“This transaction represents the first syndicated deal for an Armenian financial institution in the bank loan market without multilateral agency support. Ardshininvestbank’s debut syndicated facility closed oversubscribed attracting significant interest from both regional and international banks. The proceeds of the transaction will be used to support the borrower’s trade related needs. The unsecured Facility will have a tenor of one-year, with a bullet repayment on maturity”, the bank’s statement reads.

Founded in 2002, Ardshininvestbank is the third largest bank of the Armenian banking system by assets (USD 668mln) as at Q4 2013. Ardshininvestbank serves its customers (c.220k) through its 1,081 employees, 55 branches (second largest branch network) and 92 ATMs as at Q4 2013.

The bank is primarily engaged in corporate and SME banking with a 69% share of total net loan portfolio as of Q4 2013. Ardshininvestbank is 97.23% owned by Center of Business Investments LLC and 2.77% by management. The Borrower holds market shares of 9.2%, 9.6% and 9.4% in banking sector’s assets, loans and deposits respectively as at Q4 2013.

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.