"Viva Armenia" plans to buy "Ovio". Civilnet
- Armen Sukiasyan
- 16 hours ago
- 2 min read
Armenian telecommunications operator Viva Armenia plans to buy 100 percent of the shares of GNC-ALFA. The company represents the Russian brand formerly known as Rostelecom, now called Ovio, in Armenia, which provides broadband Internet services. This was reported by Civilnet .
The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) plans to discuss the draft decision to approve the deal on July 2.
The Ministry of High-Tech Industry and the National Security Service have already given their consent. Information about the value of the transaction has not yet been published.
The potential sale of GNC-ALFA, a subsidiary of the Russian telecommunications company Rostelecom, was in the spotlight back in 2022, when the process of transferring shares began. However, the deal, according to CivilNet sources, fell through at that time due to Russia's war against Ukraine and the resulting Western sanctions against Russian companies.
As a result, the buyer was unable to raise credit funds to finalize the transaction.
In 2022, the buyer was represented by Molitro Holdings Limited, a company registered in Cyprus. Its shareholders were the Armenian Electric Networks company, owned by Samvel Karapetyan, and Arman Unanyan, whose name is associated with the sons of former SRC Chairman Gagik Khachatryan, although the latter denied any connection.
The Public Services Regulatory Commission and the Competition Protection Commission had given their consent to the deal. The initial sale price of the company was announced at $25 million, and the buyers planned to invest about 2.5 billion drams over five years.
Despite all this, Hayk Faramazyan, the CEO of GNC-ALFA, stated that the deal did not go through, without clearly stating the reasons. The PSRC also stated that documents confirming the completion of the deal were never submitted.
Thus, as of 2022, the sale of the company did not take place, and GNC-ALFA continued to operate under the management of its former shareholders, maintaining its communication infrastructure with 92% coverage in Armenian cities and an optical network of about 3,000 km.
