OTE company finally managed to sell its 90% share in the “Armentel” company. The share was sold for $ 341.9 million Euros (as well as with a debt of $40 million) to Russian company “Vimpelcom” (Bi Line operator). Even though this contract still has to be approved by the Armenian government, our officials have one more reason to celebrate since they have given one more field to their strategic ally (almost 40% of mobile connection and the entire network of fixed telephone connection). It is no secret that this is what the government wanted to do and let everyone know about its intentions. Several days ago another Russian company, “Sistema” purchased one of the biggest Armenian Internet provider companies. Now there is one more Russian company that has monopolistic positions. Armenia is the sixth CIS country where there is a “Vimpelcom” branch. Furthermore, this company is a part of one of the biggest Russian consortiums (Alpha group). The controlling stocks in the mentioned consortium belong to three Russian magnates: Mikhail Fridman, German Han and Alexei Kuzmichov.
