The Public Services Regulatory Committee of Armenia has approved Ucom's application for pledging 30% out of 41% of the shares belonging to the company's owner Aram Khachtryan at Ardshinbank CJSC.
Ucom External Relations Director Alexander Yesayan says the Company decided to pledge the shares to implement investments programs. "We plan to invest the raised credit funds in implementation of a series of projects, including to purchase Orange Company," Yesayan told ArmInfo. During the July 22 press conference Orange Armenia CEO Francis Gelitber said the Armenian subsidiary of the French Telecom decided to leave the country and launched negotiations with Ucom for sale of its shares. He said that by Orange Group and Ucom Brand's preliminary arrangement, "Orange Armenia" will operate for 12 more months. The new owner will decide whether to carry out a rebranding or no. He said that the company accounted for 17%-18% of the mobile market in Armenia, which is insufficient for investing in up-to-date technologies and anticipate a return within reasonable terms.
Ucom is known to belong to the relatives of Armenian Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan - one of the richest officials in Armenia. Orange representative said the Armenian Government did not press them to sale the company. Gelibter said that Ucom suggested them to buy Orange. Besides, Ucom there is only one northern company (he probably meant Rostelecom) in Armenia to have such big technical capacities. Therefore, Gelibter said, his company decided to negotiate with the Armenian company.
Orange Armenia has been operating on the Armenian market since 5 November 2005, and Ucom was founded in 2007.
According to the company's financial statements, since November 2009, i.e. since the company's entry into the Armenian market, it has been suffering losses that now amount to four billions of drams, with losses for 2013 totaling 3.85 billion drams. By late 2014, the company invented 100 billion drams. As of Mar 31, 2015, the loss of the company for the previous years totaled 184.6 million euro.