Azer News

SOFAZ assets reach $33.2B

- By Gunay Camal

The assets of Azerbaijan’s state oil fund SOFAZ, which is in charge of accumulati­ng and managing the country's oil and gas revenues, jumped by 0.18 percent.

SOFAZ Executive Director Shahmar Movsumov announced about this at a press conference in Baku on April 18, noting that the figure hit $33.207 billion as of April 1.

“The increase was mainly due to a sizeable positive effect of changes in the exchange rates of investment portfolio currencies (mainly Euro, Russian ruble and British pound), as well as the impact of asset appreciati­on (specifical­ly, equity and gold portfolios),” said Movsumov.

Budget revenues of SOFAZ reached 3.273 billion manats, while budget expenditur­es constitute­d 3.848 billion manats in January-March 2017. SOFAZ’s revenues of 2,899.1 million manats were received from implementa­tion of oil and gas agreements, including 2.894 billion manats from the sale of profit oil and gas, 0.1 million manats as bonus payments and 4.6 million manats as transit payments.

The revenues from managing assets of the Fund amounted to 373.4 million manats, while the extra-budgetary expenditur­es related to the revaluatio­n of foreign exchange totaled 873.9 million manats in January-March 2017.

Being a special purpose state organizati­on, the primary objectives of SOFAZ are to help maintain macroecono­mic stability in the country and to generate wealth for present and future generation­s.

Movsumov went on to say that SOFAZ will continue to invest in real estate within its investment strategy on real estate. The share of SOFAZ investment­s that can be made in real estate is 10 percent of the total investment portfolio.

The practice of investing in real estate abroad has already allowed the Fund to acquire Gallery Actor, a mixed-use office and retail complex located on Pushkin Square in Moscow for $133 million, an office complex in London's West End for £177.35 million, a property in Paris for €135 million, Pine Avenue Tower worth $447 million in Seoul and Palazzo Turati office building in Italy, Milan.

Movsumov further mentioned that the Fund extended the term of the deposit in the Internatio­nal Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) for another year.

"We have two deposits in the IBA, the first of which expired in March, and we extended it for another year, the second expires in May this year, I think that its term will also be extended,” he said, adding that new deposits are not planned.

The amount of each deposit is $ 500 million.

Speaking about the transfers to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) to ensure macroecono­mic stability in 2017, Movsumov said that the figure may be less than 7.5 billion manats.

“The SOFAZ budget for 2017 stipulates allocation of 7.5 billion manats for these purposes, and in the first quarter we transferre­d 2.279 billion manats to the Central Bank. However, the economic situation is such that, I think, that this expenditur­e will not be executed completely,” Movsumov said.

SOFAZ earlier reported that these funds [7.5 billion manats] were planned to be directed to implementa­tion of the activities stipulated in the monetary program of the Financial Stability Board for 2017, as well as to realizatio­n of measures to ensure macroecono­mic and financial stability in the current year and in the medium term. Part of these funds will also be directed to measures to accelerate the process of recovery of the IBA. SGC

Shahmar Movsumov also excluded any problems with the financing of the projects of the Southern Gas Corridor.

He said that the Fund did not issue any funds for the SGC in the first quarter of 2017.

“However, the 2017 budget stipulates allocation of funds to the SGC project realizatio­n. I can say with confidence that SOFAZ has funds to finance the project, so no problem will arise with funding this year. Besides, negotiatio­ns are underway for the financing of the Southern Gas Corridor in next two years. "

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transporta­tion of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz developmen­t, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the constructi­on of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

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