Russia’s Gazprombank buys major Armenian bank

Agence France Presse — English
January 25, 2008 Friday 3:19 PM GMT

Russia’s Gazprombank has bought 80.09 percent of one of Armenia’s
largest retail banks, Areximbank, and is in negotiations with
Austria’s Raiffeisen International to buy the rest, Gazprombank
vice-president Olga Kazanskaya said Friday.

Details of the deal were not disclosed. The bank will be renamed
Gazprombank of Armenia by the end of the year, Kazanskaya said at a
press conference.

She said Gazprombank, controlled by Russian gas giant Gazprom, would
be seeking to finance energy projects in Armenia with ArmRosGazprom,
a joint Russian-Armenian company that controls natural gas pipelines
feeding Russian gas to Armenia.

Russia is a close ally of Armenia, a former Soviet republic, and its
companies have extensive investments in the country including in the
energy and telecoms sectors.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS