The Armenian and Russian presses have provided coverage about the Russian “Vimpel Com” company’s (B Line) large investment in Armenia, according to which the mentioned Russian company bought 90% of share of the “Armentel” company.
As stated in the previous elections of “168 Hours”, the Russian “Expert Online” and “IKS-Consulting” news agencies have covered information stating that the mentioned deal is pessimistic on the part of the Russian company. The Russians are mostly concerned about the price they had to pay ($436,7 million and $51 as debt responsibility). According to “CNews”, the head of the “United Financial Company”, Alexei Yakovitski thinks that this deal is a very good achievement for the “Vimpel Com”. “The money that the “Vimpel Com” will pay is five times more than that of the EBIDTA of “Armentel” (earnings before income tax). Usually for mobile phone operators it is normal to pay a price 10 times more than the EBIDTA of the given company, and for companies of fixed communication it is normal to pay a higher price than that, nearly 7.5 times more” said Mr. Yakovitski.
As for Russian mobile operator company “MTS”, which has been competing with the “Vimpel Com” to buy “Armentel”, its press secretary, Cyril Aliavdi has said that they have suggested a better price for buy that company, but he didn’t mention any concrete sum. Some experts of this field say that the reason that the latter failed to buy the Armenian company is the fact that currently they are saving and are not able to invest enough money to improve the current network.
“By buying Armentel the general director of Vimpel Com, Alexandr Izosivmov made their company the leading one in Russia with its foreign networks” writes “CNews” and notes that the specialists are not sure whether the Vimpel Com needs the fixed connection network or not.
While some papers are covering information about this deal, Russian newspaper “Versia” writes that the fact that the Russian capital has increased in Armenia (this deal as well as the interest of “Gazprom” in the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline) is based on the political interests connected with Azerbaijan. The Russian information and analysis center “Marketing Consulting” has discussed the coverage of “Versia” and they say that the Armenian president has been suggested supporting the Russians what with the Georgian political crisis and get support for the Karabagh conflict instead. “In other words, the president was suggested to be closer to Russia and go against Georgia, and all that may be done on the account of Azerbaijan” concludes the agency.