Deputy minister says ENA must be owned and run by private company
Deputy energy minister Areg Galstyan has shrugged off today arguments that the national debt-ridden power distribution company Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA) should be nationalized, telling a public debate on the future of the utility that it must be owned and run by a private investor.
On September 17 he Armenian government announced that Inter RAO, the owner of ENA, asked it to authorize the ENA’s sale to Liormand Holdings Ltd, a Cyprus-registered company. Prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan was said to have instructed several government ministries to look into the deal before a government decision on the matter. The government is expected to discuss the matter at a session on September 25.
"A company of this level (ENA) should not be owned or run by the government’ it must be operated by a private effective company," Areg Galstyan said today.
Galstyan said several options had been considered about how to address the problem of the utility, including its nationalization, however, studies, showed that the government is unable to run it as effectively as a private company.
He said the government is elaborating a corresponding agreement with the potential owner of the utility that includes a set of new and tougher mandatory requirements. He added that the agreement provides for greater public control of the utility’s operations.
Armenia media reports said earlier the Cyprus-registered Liormand Holdings Limited is owned by a Russia-based ethnic Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. According to some stories, Samvel Karapetyan will buy 50% of the shares of the facility, while the other 50% will be distributed among three wealthy Armenian businessmen - Gagik Tsarukyan, former head of the Prosperous Armenia Party, Karen Karapetyan, former head of ArmRosgazprom gas distribution company (now Gazprom Armenia) and a former member of the National Assembly of Armenia Harutyun Pambukchyan.
The decision to sell ENA comes less than three months after Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) allowed the company to raise electricity prices by almost 17 percent, which sparked two-week nonstop demonstrations in Yerevan, forcing the government to subsidize power supplies in Armenia until the end of a government-commissioned audit of the utility, meant to determine whether the ENA has been mismanaged by Inter RAO.-0-