Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is one of the more productive of the smaller central Asian countries, with a population of 8.4 million and a GDP of $31 billion. Comfortably leading the country’s banking industry is International Bank of Azerbaijan, with about half of the country’s banking assets and loans. This year, following a $15 million loan for Bank Respublica and a $30 million loan for Unibank, IBA came to market in May for its own loan, to the amount of $173.5 million, the largest in the country’s history and a graphic reminder of the levels IBA operates at compared with its domestic peers. The deal was originally planned for $80 million but was increased on the back of strong investor interest.