ArmInfo.On January 26 this year, "MTS Armenia" telecommunication company applied to the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) to obtain permission to buy and sell shares. The information was confirmed to ArmInfo by PSRC press secretary Liana Azizyan.
According to her, the company's application is under discussion in PSRC. "We also applied to the Ministry of High-Technology Industry, the National Security Service and Competition Protection Commissio of the Republic of Armenia to find out their position," she said, adding that 40 working days are allotted for this. After receiving a response, the Regulator has another 15 working days to make a decision on the application.
At the same time, the PSRC representative did not disclose the name of the buyer, referring to trade secrets.
MTS Armenia telecommunication company (VivaCell-MTS trade mark) holds the leadership among Armenian communication operators in the list of the largest taxpayers. According to the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia, in 2022, MTS Armenia paid 15.9 billion drams to the state treasury (10th place against 8th a year earlier), of which 13.7 million drams - for customs duties, 5.6 billion drams - for direct taxes (including profit tax, income tax), over 6.9 billion drams - VAT.
It is noteworthy that, according to CivilNet, the list of potential buyers of the telecommunications operator includes Hayk Yesayan and Alexander Yesayan, owners of another "Tim Telecom" operator, as well as foreign owners of "Armbusinessbank". Former director of this company, Ralph Yirikian, who was recently appointed general director of another operator, Ucom, was also interested in buying MTS-Armenia.
"Viva-MTS" entered the Armenian telecommunications market in 2005. From that moment until now, the company has paid taxes to the state budget of Armenia in the amount of 258 billion drams. The number of employees is more than 1200 people.
The number of Viva-MTS subscribers, according to the company itself, exceeds 2 million. "Viva-MTS" occupies the first place in the mobile communications market. Now the main shareholder of the company is the Russian MTS, owned by Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
