RUSSIAN COMPANY’S FINAL DECISION ON ACQUISITION OF PROMETEY-CHIMPROM TO BECOME KNOWN WITHIN NEXT FEW DAYS

Noyan Tapan
Aug 14 2006

VANADZOR, AUGUST 14, NOYAN TAPAN. It is expected that the big
specialized Russian company (its name was not indicated) that has been
conducting negotiations with the Armenian side on the purchase of the
Prometey-Chimprom chemical plant for four months, will make its final
decision about the plant’s purchase on August 14-15. The Armenian
President Robert Kocharian stated this at a press conference to
summarize his working visit to Lori marz on August 11. In his opinion,
the plant’s acquisition by the Russian company opens serious prospects
for the enterprise. "I am speaking about it with caution, as I saw
several unsuccessul attempts to sell Prometey-Chimprom. Nevertheless,
we also have excellent results of selling some other enterprises by
making several attempts," R. Kocharian noted. He underlined that
Prometey-Chimprom has a great potential in terms of job creation
and becoming a source of extra revenues for Vanadzor’s budget in
an indirect way. The Armenian President exprssed his perplexity
in connection with the fact that Prometey-Chimprom’s operation was
discontinued during the negotiations. The regional governor of Lori
marz Nenrik Kochinian explained at the press conference that it was
the Russian side’s request to stop the operation of the corundum
and carbide sections during the negotiation process so as not to
cause chganges in the balance. However, it resulted in an enforced
idleness, and 600 employees of the plant did not receive their
salaries. H. Kochinain informed those present that representatives
of the Russian company intending to buy Prometey-Chimprom recently
studied the technical state of the plant’s melamine section and
came to a positive conclusion. It is noteworthy that the Vanadzor
Chemical Complex, which also includes the Chemichal Fibre Plant,
can employ 3-3.5 thousand people. To recap, the complex, which
was standing idle since 1989, was bought from the RA government by
Zakneftegazstroy-Prometey company (headed by Senik Gevorgain), one
of Russia’ leading companies in construction of gas and oil pipelines.

ZNGS-Prometey also purchased the Vanadzor Thermal Power Planr
by concluding a 1.5 mln-dollar trnsaction. The Vanadzor chemical
complex was renamed Prometey-Chimprom, and started operating in 2001,
with 20 mln out of the 60 mln dollar investments envisaged by ZGNS
being made in it. In the summer of 2002, 50% of Prometey-Chimprom’s
shares and its management passed (according to some information,
for 6 mln USD) to Ransat company (UK) that is engaged in trade
of ceramics and chemical products and is run by Indians. At the
same time, Ransat became the owner of Nairit-1 (Yerevan) company
producing chloroprene rubber. In early 2003, Ransat left Armenia
due to differences with the RA government regarding gas, water and
electricity supply. In 2004-2005, the Slovakian-Swedish company SLZ
was conducting negoatiations on Prometey-Chimprom’s purchase but it
did not eventually buy the complex. The complex can produce up to
10 thousand tons of milamine a year, 15 thousand tons of carbide,
500 tons of melem, 200 tons of corundum, and the Vanadzor TPP can
generate 25 megawatts of electricity.