KHUJAND, December 5, 2009, Asia-Plus — Open join-stock company (OJSC) ОАО Sohibkorbank, commercial bank with headquarters in Khujand, is closing branches and reducing staff following crisis, the Sohibkorbank Board chairman Dosymbet Makhsut Zhumaliuly said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the bank has closed its five branches to this day and only seven branches now operate in Tajikistan. He added that they had also cut down the number of staff by half.
“Nonpayment of loans has forced us to take these measures,” said the bank head, “Pleading serious economic problems, debtors have stopped repaying loans. Among them are those who received 1 million U.S. dollars n loans in 2007 already. 1.5 million somoni have disappeared irrevocably in the cotton sector.”
He added that Sohibkorbank suspended providing loans and attracting deposits in 2008. “At present, we are taking efforts to give allocated money back and replenish the bank’s authorized capital stock,” said Zhumaliuly, “We are not going to close the bank and if we attract investor, the branches will be reopened.”
Founded in 1999, Sohibkorbank, with headquarters in the northern city of Khujand, had branches in Dushanbe, Istaravshan, Konibodom, Isfara, Chkalovsk, Buston (Mastchoh district), Qurghon Teppa, Tursunzoda, Roudaki and Panjakent.
In 2006, ATFBank, Kazakhstan”s fifth-largest bank, purchased the controlling stock interest in Sohibkorbank. In the meantime, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, which is part of the European banking group UniCredit, on June 21, 2007 signed an agreement on the purchase of the controlling stock interest in Kazakhstan”s ATFBank. UniCredit Group valued the bank at $2.175 billion. Since UniCredit Group bought a majority stake in ATFBank, Sohibkorbank also passed into hands of UniCredit Group as ATFBank owns the controlling stock interest in Sohibkorbank.
