AZG Armenian Daily #064, 08/04/2006
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GOVERNMENT HAS NO SPECIFIED POSITION IN ISSUE OF SELLING ARMENTEL
The Greek OTE Company informed on its website about the decision to
sell 90% of ArmenTel shares. Hasmik Chutilian, press secretary of
ArmenTel also confirmed this information. She added that OTE informed
RA Government about its decision, according to the License #60 the
company was given.
Neither RA Transport and Communication Ministry nor RA Government’s
Press Service responded our question about the position of RA
government on this decision of OTE. We can suppose that the government
hasn’t discussed this issue yet, and has no position.
While the government is specifying its position, rumors already
circulate about the probable buyers of ArmenTel. Thus, the Russian
Rostelecom, Vimpelcom, MTS and Megaphone may buy the company. But this
is a mere supposition. First of all, OTE has only announced about its
decision to sell ArmenTel and the process of selling such a large
company lasts long because of documentation issues. It’s noteworthy
that OTE bought ArmenTel for $142 million, and at present the company
costs much more, as large-scale investments have been done here. It’s
not excluded that RA Government will have its own “candidate” for
carrying out purchase of ArmenTel.
By Ara Martirosian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress