Session I Presentation by Mr. Gunduz Mammadov

OECD Centre for Private Sector Development

Sixth Conference on Financial Sector Development in the Central Asian Countries, and Mongolia

29-30 April 2004, Istanbul Dear conferees, Ladies and Gentlemen!

As you know, before the declaration of its independence Azerbaijani Republic was a part of the Soviet Union. So-called planned economy, which was totally centralized, eliminated equity market. After the declaration of independence in 1991 the Law of Azerbaijani Republic “About Securities market and Stock Exchanges” entered into force in become the basic and primary document which was regulating the equity market. So it was a first step in process of creation of the equity market’s normative base which has been done. The privatization process in Azerbaijan, as well as in the other ex-soviet countries, became a catalyst in a securities market grouping. Indeed, the adoption of “The State Program of privatization of the state ownership on the period from 1995 to 1998” was a basis for adoption of the legislation acts regulating the privatization process and equity market in following years. The process of transferring medium and large-scale companies to the joint- stock companies has started in 1997. All citizens of Azerbaijan were provided by privatization vouchers, issued by state in quantity of 7.5 millions, and got the right and possibility to participate in privatization. There was also the President’s Decree, which has ratified the Regulations “On state privatization options” in that period. According to the legislation acts the privatization options, which are equal with vouchers, are one of the instruments of payment during the course of privatization, issued only for foreign investors. Thus, each investor wishing to participate in privatization process, has to present number of privatization options equal to the quantity of the privatization vouchers. There are approximately 18 millions privatization options in circulation at the present time. From the moment of establishment of the State Committee for Securities under auspices of President of the Azerbaijani Republic in 1998, the equity market was given a significant stimulus to develop. In a short period of time SCS has adopted more than 70 normative acts regulating securities market, worked up the program of equity’s market development, started the process of licensing of the professional participants and the first private depositories and registrars have been established. There are 28 licenses for broker, 25 licenses for dealer, 3 licenses for depository, 3 licenses for registrar, 1 license for clearing and 1 license for stock exchange activities granted by the State Committee for Securities up to moment. In the beginning of the Year 2000 the Stock Exchange has been established by 18 large-scale companies. There are 13 commercial banks, 2 local companies and 3 foreign companies, including Istanbul Stock Exchange among the founders. Since the beginning of its activity till present day there were about 70 floating of State Short-term bills (SSB, T-bills) for a total amount of 337 million USD. The most remarkable peculiarity of the SSB market at the moment is the increment of trade volume on secondary market and axe of profitability.

The diagram of SSB income flows

Volume of trades on SSB secondary market

There is an increment of the trading activity on tenders holding by BSE on corporate securities at the same time. The Year 2003 could be considered like turning point as there have been made the record number of purchase and sale bargains. Occasionally BSE held tenders on currency futures contracts, REPO and SSB (T-bills). Up to date the equity market of Azerbaijan is presented by corporate securities and bills, bonds, derivative securities, long and short-term bills. From the moment of the establishment of the State Committee for Securities, there were 567 equity issues with total amount of 538.9 million USD, including 66 bank stocks issues to the amount of 39.4 million USD registered. The most part of issues have been implemented within the framework of privatization process of the state companies and their reorganization to the public companies.

Ratio of public companies established during the privatization process, per Economy sectors

As for issues of the corporate bills, it should be recognized that this instrument has not found a wide application in our country yet. Thus, from the beginning of Year 2000 till Year 2004 there have been 12 issues of the corporate bills for the amount of 6.1 million USD registered, including 4 issues for the amount of 4 million USD issued by banks. Besides those, one of the registered bond issues for the amount of 80 thousand USD had been considered null in consequence of not floatation of stocks. Among the debt instruments with wide requisition bank certificates of deposit can be mentioned.

The corporate debenture-bond market structure

From January 1 2000 till January 1 2004 the market volume of corporate and bank bonds was about 84.1 million USD, including certificates of deposit for the amount of 65.6 million USD, bonds - 13.6 million USD, bills - 4.9 million USD. At the present time one of the most developed infrastructures of the equity market are depository organizations. Besides that, the Decree of the President of Azerbaijani Republic approved the Regulation “On National Depository System” and “Regulations on maintenance of register of the shareholders of the public companies, established during the privatization of state companies and specialized cheque investment funds”. The Regulation “On National Depository System” has provided the establishment of the National Depository Center. According to the Regulation, the National Depository Center is a state organization being a component part of the national depository system, engaging with depository activity and keeping records of depositories, being part of depository system, controls their activity. Within the framework of implementation of the Decree, National Depository Center has been established in 18 September 1997, in form of closed-type Joint- stock company. Up to date, the State Committee for Securities is the founder of NDC and owns the entire holding of its stocks. National Depository System also includes 2 depository organizations, one of which is private company and another one acts as settling depository for Baku Stock Exchange. The relations with them are being regulated according to appropriate agreements. There are 250.000 Depot and Sub-depot accounts of physical and juridical persons opened in National Depository Center. There are also agreements on rendering of services on keeping the securities and maintenance of the shareholders’ registry of more than 900 public companies. I would like to mark that in comparison with presiding years of activity of the National Depository Center the number of registered deals and number of securities on which these deals have been executed increased for several times. Thus, in period from 2001 to 2002 there have been 2.6 times more registered deals than in period from 1997 to 2000. In addition to that there were 2.937 deals registered in Year 2001 at nominal value for the total amount of more than 32.0 million USD, in Year 2002 there have been registered 4.140 deals at nominal value for the total amount of more than 20.0 million USD, whilst during 2003 there have been 4962 deals registered at nominal value for the total amount of 43.7 million USD. The ratio by years on registered deals, Volume of deals, And number of securities

Fields and proportion of deals

As the Stock market in Azerbaijan is on the initial stage of development the result can not counted very satisfactory, particularly because of non-presenting of the stock market by insurance companies, investment funds, non-implementation of the pension reform, etc., but anyway, the stock market in Azerbaijan has a huge potential for further development.

Thank you for your attention.