Amundi-Acba continues to make investments in various sectors of the Armenian economy.
Investments were made in the EU-Armenia SME Fund from the Balanced and Conservative pension funds managed by Amundi-Acba. The fund invests in a variety of sectors including renewable energy, healthcare, agriculture and technology.
The EU-Armenia SME Private Equity Fund, which exclusively invests in the Republic of Armenia, is managed by Amber Capital Armenia, where Amundi-Acba’s contribution is $6 million representing 10% of the fund’s assets. One of the fund’s investments was made in the Armenian ACX International, the first in the world to specialize compliance and customer support services in the digital assets sector.
Grigor Harutyunyan, Investment Director of Amber Capital Armenia, stated the EU-Armenia SME Fund essentially acts as an equal shareholder, equally sharing both risks and benefits. “Amber Capital leverages its expertise to support development of the companies through business connections, helping the company develop by providing financial analysis and introducing best practices of corporate governance”. He also highlighted, the investment made by Amundi-Acba in the EU-Armenia SME Fund sends a strong signal to other institutional investors.
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Hrayr Aslanyan, Fund Manager of Amundi-Acba, mentioned that the investment in ACX International allowed the pension funds to have indirect exposure in this innovative technological sector and to benefit from the rapid developments the sector brings.
“These investments are expected to yield higher returns, since private equity funds, typically outperform public markets. Ultimately, this should lead to a higher returns for pension funds reflecting in future pensions of our funds’ participants.
According to Henry Arslanian, Co-Founder of ACX International, the compliance operations for the world’s leading crypto companies take place here in Yerevan. This is an immense source of pride not only for ACX International, but also for Armenia and the Armenian people. He believes this is a great achievement as the most challenging and crucial tasks are carried out not in America, not in Europe, not in China, but here in Armenia, in Yerevan.
Henry Arslanyan, emphasized the importance of pension funds which enable people to save money for future,
Toms Pouders, the other Co-Founder of ACX International, noted:
“Our clients are international from North America, Canada, Europe, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, as well as Eastern Asia. Currently, we do not have any local clients, but the government’s ongoing support for regulatory development, gives us hope to acquire clients from Armenia in the near future”. According to Toms Pouders Amber Capital is one of the most intelligent venture investors in Armenia. “They recognized our potential as a company and supported us financially to expand and establish connections”.
ACX International is a group of companies that provides compliance and customer support services to companies operating in the global digital space. The number of the company’s employees has exceeded 200 in 4 years, and ACX has become a market leader in this field serving clients worldwide. ACX International’s workforce includes a significant number of Armenians from Diaspora enabling the company to provide services in Arabic, French, English and many more.
Amundi-Acba Asset Management was founded in 2013. The company manages three mandatory pension funds having around AMD 549 billion assets under its management as of November 30th, 2024.
The company’s shareholders are the French Amundi, the leading European Asset Manager with nearly 2,2 trillion Euros in assets under management as of September 30, 2024 and Acba Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in Armenia, represented throughout the country with 65 branches.
Amundi-Acba is supervised by the Central Bank of Armenia.
