AUCTION ON BJNI FACTORY SALE ENDS

ArmInfo
2009-02-16 18:33:00

ArmInfo. The repeated e-auction on sale of property and brands of
CJSC "Mineral water factory Bjni", that had started on 5 February,
has ended.

Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service under Armenian Justice
Ministry reported, that as a result of the auction they received only
one application to buy "Bjni". The starting price during the repeated
auction was 4,441 bln drams ($14,5 mln) instead of the initial 4,9
bln drams ($16 mln). The name of the applicant is not informed. The
ministry refers to some points of the law not to mention the name. The
sum 4,441 bln drams should be paid over 3 banking days.

To recall, Bjni Plant of Mineral Waters is part of "Sil-Concern"
belonging to the Sukiasyans family of businessmen. Observers in
Armenia connect the fact of the unprecedented pressure on the Concern’s
structures with the political activity of the Armenian parliamentarian
Khachatur Sukiasyan, who openly supported the first president at the
previous presidential election.

Sukiasyan has been deprived of his mandate and is currently
wanted. After starting of the auction, Armenian businessman, leader
of Prosperous Armenia Party, Gagik Tsarukyan, recommended businessmen
not to take part in the auction.

The former owner of the plant has disseminated a statement which
says that the auction process was held with numerous violation of
law. Moreover, at present there are 8 lawsuits in Administrative Court
of Armenia from Bjni plant and CJSC ‘Sil-concern’ in connection with
the campaign. They require to recognize decisions on holding the
auction invalid.

The statement says about illegal holding of the auction, particularly,
because the starting price turned out to be lower than required and
because the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service failed to
take into account the value-added tax to be paid. "Even if the buyer
of the property is legal (but we have all grounds to suppose quite
the opposite), we can demand the property back as its alienation
took pace involuntarily. The buyer of the property will also have
problems with the use of relevant trademarks. In this connection,
we call on the possible buyer to abstain from paying the specified
amount as the property will be returned to our company in a judicial
proceeding in the future", the statement says.