The deal requires the approval of the Bank of Georgia’s multiple shareholders and the Central Bank of Armenia. In a statement, the bank’s British-registered parent company, Bank of Georgia Group (BOGG), said it would “significantly enhance the Group's presence and growth opportunities within a fast-growing and attractive market.”
"This transaction is a significant milestone for the Group and a new chapter in our strategic development,” the BOGG chairman, Mel Carvill, was quoted as saying.
“Ameriabank has a well-regarded and experienced management team, and I am delighted that they will stay on after the transaction is closed,” added Carvill.
Ameriabank is one of Armenia’s largest banks with total assets worth $3.4 billion, compared with $11.7 billion held by the Bank of Georgia. Vardanyan owns, through a trust fund, almost 49 percent of Ameriabank, making him its biggest shareholder.
The tycoon, who had made his fortune in Russia, briefly served as Karabakh’s premier in late 2022 and early 2023. He and seven other former political and military leaders of Karabakh were arrested by Azerbaijani security services last September during the mass exodus of the region’s ethnic Armenian population which followed an Azerbaijani military offensive. They remain imprisoned there on serious charges. Armenia has demanded their immediate release.
“Ruben Vardanyan has nothing to do with the possible sale of the bank,” Mesrop Arakelian, an Armenian opposition figure linked to him, wrote on Facebook.
Arakelian said takeover talks between BOGG and Ameriabank began in 2022. But he did not clarify whether Vardanyan approved the resulting acquisition of his bank.
Ameriabank is the second Armenian bank which will likely change hands in the coming weeks or months. Two weeks ago, HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, announced the sale of its Armenian subsidiary to Ardshinbank, the largest in Armenia.
HSBC said the deal, also subject to Armenian regulatory approvals, stems from its “strategy to redeploy capital from less strategic or low-connectivity businesses into higher-growth opportunities globally.” Reuters reported last May that the British bank is considering a possible exit from as many as a dozen countries after earlier announcements about selling off parts or all of its activities in France, Canada, Russia and Greece.
Established in 1996, HSBC Armenia is the only local commercial bank controlled by a major Western banking group.
The 18 banks operating in Armenia nearly tripled their combined profits, to a record 253 billion drams ($626 million), in 2022 amid a dramatic increase in cash flows from Russia resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The figure reportedly fell by 9 percent in 2023.