SOCAR bonds enjoy foreign investors’ interest

"In accordance with international standards, the profitability of SOCAR bonds is considered to be high, therefore, both local and foreign investors are interested in their purchase,” said Hasanov. "As far as I know, foreign investors have already appealed to investment companies to buy SOCAR bonds and some of them have currently submitted the necessary documents and are undergoing registration. Foreign investors already own these bonds.”

SOCAR started selling its bonds, worth $100 million (100,000 bonds, each worth $1,000), on Sept. 20, 2016. Applications were received until Oct. 10, and the demand for the bonds amounted to $203 million. The sale of SOCAR bonds in Azerbaijan’s secondary market began Oct. 18. SOCAR bonds will be in circulation until 2021, with 5 percent yield and a payment carried out once in three months.

Hasanov noted that there are foreign investors who buy the SOCAR bonds in small volumes and in big volumes, which is due to profitability and reliability of the bonds.

He added that the US dollar bonds of SOCAR contributed to the revival of the securities market.

"One can say that after the devaluation of the Azerbaijani manat, the country’s securities market entered a state of stagnation,” Hasanov said. "Of course, there were government bonds issued by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Finance in the market, but generally they are sold only in the primary market. The holders of these bonds prefer to keep them and not to sell them in the secondary market.”

"However, due to the fact that SOCAR bonds have an absolute guarantee, both sellers and buyers show a lot of interest in them,” he noted. "Currently, SOCAR bonds are the most actively traded bonds and this has had a major impact on the development of the secondary securities market, and has given a very big momentum to the revival of the entire market as a whole.”

Speaking about the future participation of Azerbaijan’s state oil company in the securities market, Hasanov said SOCAR will do everything possible for the development of this type of market.

"Most probably, SOCAR will continue to issue bonds, but the currency and volume of these bonds will depend on the needs of the market,” said Hasanov.