Armenia's investment prospects in 2024 as seen by CEO of Freedom Broker Armenia
YEREVAN, December 21. /ARKA/. In the next few years, the Armenian stock market will be expanding both in terms of the number of issuers and trading volumes, Hovak Hovakimyan, GEO of Freedom Broker Armenia investment company, said in an interview with ARKA news agency.
In 2022, the Central Bank of Armenia approved the acquisition of 65% of the Armenian Securities Exchange (AMX) by the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The Armenian Securities Exchange trades the corporate bonds of 18 issuers (97 bond issues with an average duration of about one and a half years), shares of 11 issuers as well as government bonds.
According to Hovakimyan, several factors will contribute to the growth of trading volumes and inflow of new clients to the Armenian Securities Exchange. In one or two years the AMX is expected to start cross-listing with the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WFA), which will increase the number of available investment instruments.
"At the moment Armenia looks more attractive in terms of a convenient jurisdiction for international investment. Recently, the Movchan's Group has registered a family of funds in Armenia – the Aragats platform, on which its strategies ARGO, GEIST, LAIF are being implemented with minor limitations.," Hovak Hovakimyan said.
Speaking about why Armenia is quite suitable as one of the jurisdictions, where it is possible to create a fund family, the founder of the group Andrey Movchan listed several factors, such as the legislation, which in Armenia is similar to the legislation of developed jurisdictions; also, the Armenian regulator understands this structure well, it is transparent, reliable and easy to communicate with.
"Along with traditional debt instruments, the equity capital market will also develop thanks to the financial stimulation of commercial enterprises and provision of professional counseling. However, the exchange will have to do a lot of work to attract investors to the platform, as well as to provide liquidity for financial instruments," Hovakimyan said.
According to him, the creation of a centralized foreign exchange platform and related derivatives market will be another area in demand of development. Hovakimyan noted that many export-import companies are now expressing dissatisfaction over the absence of normal tools for hedging currency risks and adequate planning of currency risks. -0--
