Ms. Valentina Kasymbekova, an independent journalist, notes that the situation at the head office of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Agroinvestbonk in Dushanbe remains tense. According to her, customers come to the bank’s headquarters in the hope of getting their money almost every day but they frequently go away empty-handed. The bank top managers are reportedly continuing to keep silence.
Ms. Kasymbekova says that according to data from the Ministry of Finance the current holders of the bank equities include the Ministry of Finance — 87.3 percent of equities, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – more than 12 percent of equities, and physical entities – 0.7 percent.
Last year, four physical entities, including Agroinvestbonk head Murodali Alimardon, reportedly owned 5 percent of the bank equities.
“As of 2016, Alimardon owned 0.3 percent of equities. By the way, Alimardon owned 0.0362 percent of Agroinvestbonk’s authorized capital and if it remained in the same volume, today it amounts to 526,669 somoni,” Ms. Kasymbekova said, noted that “Agroinvestbonk’s authorized capital amounts to 1,454,886,600 somoni.”
“The list of affiliated entities (physical and legal entities capable of influencing the Agroinvestbonk activities) includes the Ministry of Finance and ten physical entities, including the minister of finance,” Kasymbekova said.
Recall, four local commercial banks, including Agroinvestbonk, have been experiencing liquidity issues since 2015. Parliament in December 2016 approved a government decree to issue bonds to recapitalize the mentioned banks. The Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB) and Agroinvestbonk were topped up by 2.25 billion somoni (US$284 million) and 1.7 billion somoni (US$215 million) respectively.
Meanwhile, Tajprombank and Fononbonk never saw any of the 450 million somoni (US$56 million) and the 80 million somoni (US$10 million) earmarked for them respectively as the National Bank of Tajikistan on February 24 announced it was pulling their licenses.
Customers at Tajprombank and Fononbonk have been paid out 17,500 somoni (around $2,000) out of the state’s Individuals Deposits Insurance Fund. Anybody with more than that amount of money in the banks is still waiting to see how much they will get in the end.
In April, it emerged that the government decided unilaterally to allocate the $66 million it had set aside as bailout funds for Tajprombank and Fononbonk to construction work on the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
Agroinvestbonk has decided to reduce its staff by 800 people. In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), Jamshed Nourmahmadzoda, noted on January 23 that Agroinvestbonk was forced to reduce its staff in order to improve its activities. Nourmahmadzoda confirmed that Agroinvestbonk decided to reduce its staff by 800 people. According to him, the bank now has to reduce its “secondary expenses.”
According to official data, the list of assets of Agroinvestbonk includes more than 730 properties located in various regions of the country, including the bank headquarters in Dushanbe, main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa, 60 other branches across the country and five service centers. Besides, the bank possesses resort zones in Varzob district, small enterprises, farming units, shopping centers, shops, cafes, drugstores, refueling stations, service stations, warehouses, consumer service centers, and many apartments and residential buildings.
Founded in 1992, Agroinvestbonk, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa and more than 60 other branches across the republic.
Agroinvestbonk is one of the leading providers of finance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the agricultural sector in Tajikistan.
In 2012, the government made a decision on recapitalization of Agroinvestbonk and injected 700 million somoni in the bank. 200 million somoni went to replenishing the bank authorized capital stock and 500 million somoni were assigned for the swap.
