{"id":144,"date":"2022-07-02T18:49:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-02T16:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.wordpress.com\/?p=144"},"modified":"2022-07-02T18:49:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-02T16:49:09","slug":"how-to-buy-a-bank-and-make-63m-the-armbusinessbank-amio-bank-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"How to Buy a Bank and Make $63M: The Armbusinessbank (AMIO Bank) Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In March 2022, Armenia&#8217;s Armbusinessbank announced a major capital increase. According to the official press release on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/banks.am\/en\/news\/newsfeed\/23141\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">banks.am<\/a>, the Swiss company&nbsp;<strong>MFM Global Invest Ltd<\/strong>&nbsp;increased the bank&#8217;s capital by an impressive sum\u2014<strong>AMD 96 billion (about $188 million)<\/strong>. Alongside it, the Armenian fund &#8220;Home for youth&#8221; contributed&nbsp;<strong>AMD 32 billion ($63 million)<\/strong>&nbsp;in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"387\" height=\"581\" src=\"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-29.png?w=387\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-29.png 387w, https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-29-200x300.png 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, looking &#8220;under the hood&#8221; of this deal reveals an even more interesting picture of how modern investment mechanisms work. Presumably, contrary to a literal reading of the news, MFM Global Invest Ltd\u00a0<strong>did not contribute $188 million in &#8220;live&#8221; cash directly to the bank<\/strong>. Instead, it may have contributed\u00a0<strong>units (shares)<\/strong>\u00a0of the Liechtenstein-based alternative investment fund\u00a0<strong>Halcon Innovation Fund<\/strong>\u00a0(part of Halcon Investment SICAV) to the bank&#8217;s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These units are not just paper. As we discovered from the fund&#8217;s report, they have an international ISIN code, and their value was confirmed by an independent valuation. In essence, the fund valued its 75% stake in Armbusinessbank\u2014held through a complex structure\u2014at that same $188 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, the real cash flow in the deal was&nbsp;<strong>$63 million from the Armenian fund &#8220;Home for youth.&#8221;<\/strong>&nbsp;These funds, with the consent of the Central Bank of Armenia, became a real increase in the bank&#8217;s liquidity. The Swiss investor&#8217;s contribution, presumably, was non-monetary but rather&nbsp;<strong>intellectual and property-based<\/strong>: it involved transferring control of an established banking business, valued by the market and the regulator at $188 million. This is a classic example of financial engineering, where fund units backed by a real asset are accepted as a valid contribution to share capital. The Armenian partner effectively &#8220;earned&#8221; $63 million by injecting real cash into a bank now backed by a stronger, internationally-valued shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key takeaway for investors:<\/strong>&nbsp;The Armbusinessbank deal clearly demonstrates that in the modern world, you can buy a bank not only with &#8220;live&#8221; money but also by contributing properly structured and valued ownership stakes in the bank itself. Units of investment funds, like the Liechtenstein-based Halcon, are a legitimate financial instrument capable of serving as &#8220;currency&#8221; for major acquisitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March 2022, Armenia&#8217;s Armbusinessbank announced a major capital increase. According to the official press release on&nbsp;banks.am, the Swiss company&nbsp;MFM Global Invest Ltd&nbsp;increased the bank&#8217;s capital by an impressive sum\u2014AMD 96 billion (about $188 million). Alongside it, the Armenian fund &#8220;Home for youth&#8221; contributed&nbsp;AMD 32 billion ($63 million)&nbsp;in cash. However, looking &#8220;under the hood&#8221; of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ksokolovarchive.cc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}