ARMENIAN POWER GRID TO INVEST 75M DOLLARS IN RECONSTRUCTION

Arminfo
10 Apr 07

Yerevan, 10 April: Armenia’s Commission on Public Services approved
today [10 April] the investment plan worth 26.961bn drams (about 75m
dollars) for the Armenian power grid (an affiliate of the Unified
Energy System of Russia, RAO UES) for the period of 2007-2009.

The company specialists said at the commission’s meeting that according
to the plan, 12.2bn drams (about 34m dollars) will be invested in
the Armenian power grid in 2007; 7.405bn drams (about 20.5m dollars)
in 2008; and 7.349bn drams (about 20.4m dollars) in 2009.

The most of the fund will be channelled into the reconstruction,
modernization and expansion of the distribution networks.

[Passage omitted: details of the plan].

The general director of the Armenian power grid, Yevgeniy Gladunchik,
said that the investment plan will be funded with the company’s own
funds (about 60 per cent), as well as with loans from foreign banks,
including Russian banks.

Robert Nazaryan, the chairman of the Commission on Public Services,
said that the investment plan will increase the burden on the margin
by only 0.5 per cent.

In 2006, the Armenian power grid invested 6.5bn drams in the network
against the 3.7bn drams in 2005.

The company is a monopoly in the sale of electricity to all the
users in Armenia and services 922,000 customers. It was privatized
in 2002. In 2005, the 100 per cent of its shares was bought for 70m
dollars by Inter RAO UES, an affiliate of RAO UES.