The fact that the Russian Vimpel Com would become the owner of the 90% stocks of Armentel was quite unexpected because it was not considered one of the favorites of the sales auction. At some point all Armenian government representatives were sure that even if Russia becomes the owner of Armentel it would be MTC. However, as it’s known for both Vimpel Com and MTC the price wanted by the Greek OTE company – 500 million USD was too much. Nevertheless during the sale the main competitors were willing to pay that much, in particular the Arabic company. The latter, however, encountered certain political issues in the process of close Russian-Armenian ties and negotiations. Nevertheless, suddenly it turned out that Vimpel Com is going to take control of the 90% package of Armentel and is willing to pay 341 million 900 thousand Euro as well as submit the 40 million Euro obligations of Armentel. This means that the necessary amount was found. How about MTC? That company, the management of which has very close relations with current mayor of Moscow, great friend of Armenia’s current government (in both human and business meanings) Yuri Luzhkov, will not be too far from the management of Armenia’s communication either. The thing is that it’s not excluded that the high-rating telephone companies of Russia, such as MTC and Vimpel Com, will direct Armentel through consortium – that is jointly in a covert way. And only after the legal documentation of the transaction the other Russian company – MTC, will show up. Let’s remind that MTC has already bought the 75% of the stocks of the Armenian Internet provider – “Cornet”. If this information is confirmed, and if we find out that Vimpel Com and MTC have bought Armentel via consortium (meaning MTC also paid money), it’s not excluded that the two companies will split the fixed communication and the mobile service among themselves. In regard to this, it’s quite possible that after some time Vimpel Com will announce that it’s going to sell its stakes to MTC. This is pretty much what we have witnessed during the transactions/deals of “RAO YES” and “GAZPROM”
