Nairit may shut down from March 1

Hopes of the Premier didn’t come true

The “black days” of Nairit CJST will soon end. 168-Zham has information that the factory will shut down on March 1. The recent failures of Nairit come to prove this. On these days the management of the factory is in a quite tense and worried state. We have written that the factory was making its lay-off lists for employees.

They are planning to fire the majority of the employees. According to our sources, last week the general director of Nairit Hovik Hakheyan met with the minister of energy Armen Movsisyan. The latter stated that they couldn’t demand any salaries because he couldn’t afford it anymore. Prior to that, Nairit’s salaries were paid by borrowing money from Yerevan HES, Vorotan HES in spite of the fact that it contradicted the law. But the minister was able to take care of this contradiction. Seemingly, Movsisyan backs out from the liability of paying salaries and steps back from Nairit for good. Perhaps in the near future there might be more Hakheyan-Movsisyan meetings but the agenda will be different. We have also written that during the visit of the Russian president Putin to Armenia the negotiations on the factory failed because the Russian RosNeft refuses to take on the management of the factory with all of its debts (400 million USD) and the Armenian government didn’t have any keys of resolving this matter and Prime Minister of Armenia asked some time off from the Russian government to tackle the matter by January 2014. In regard to the future of the factory the memorandum with RosNeft-Pirelli tire and Russia-RosNeft-Armenia didn’t give much hope either, because it would mean a completely new production but Nairit doesn’t conform to those standards, neither does it have trained specialists to work in an innovative environment. The government of Armenia is constantly trying to link the name of Nairit with RosNeft. In his end of the year press conference the Primir has positively adverted to Nairit twice in the context of increasing the volumes of gas consumption, reduction of price and investments. “… if there were new large-volume investments in Armenia and specifically in Nairit it may cause to the increase of volume of gas consumption and drop of the price. RosNeft came to an agreement with the Italian Pirelli and have ratified the project of building a new enterprise in Armenia. This new project anticipates 400 million USD investments. It will relate to the new factory that will produce tires and Nairit’s rubber will be raw material for that. It will be produced in Armenia. It means that this figure has been officially declared,” said Tigran Sargsyan. Although the Premier has mentioned the 400 million USD as expected investments, according to internal sources the Russian side is only going to invest 100 million USD. The Russians are not going to pay extra for the pleasures of others and the debts accumulated as a result. Most probably, Tigran Sargsyan wasn’t able to acquit the debts of Nairit and is hopeful that the Russian will take on the management and thus inherit the debt. But as the development of circumstances shows the Russian are very persistent and are not going to give in. The evidence of that is the verdict of Moscow’s arbitrary court of January 22 in the case Rhinoville Property Limited vs.

Intergovernmental bank. By the way, the arbitrary court of Moscow delays the verdict because of the pending negotiations between Russia and Armenia. But in this case as well the ones who were behind the debts of Nairit have been really sleek. As it is known Nairit got the shares of Rhinoville Property Limited and as an heir it should pay the debts of Rhinoville. In total, Nairit owed to the Intergovernmental bank 210 million USD in 2006. At that time, Intergovernmental bank gave 70 million USD credit to Nairit (bank then the chair of the Bank was Tigran Sargsyan) and in 2009 the Bank gave another credit to Nairit in the amount of 100 million USD. The guarantor of this credit was the Republic of Armenia with its 10% of shares.

The late payments and fines to the Bank amounted to 40 million USD. And as Rhinoville Property Limited was out of the game there were only Nairit and Armenia in the game. The factory was bankrupt and the debt was supposed to be paid back at the expense of the Armenian budget it means from the pockets of all Armenian citizens. In his end of the year press conference Sargsyan also said, “At the first stage we clearly have an understanding that the new enterprise will be established. The second stage pertains to relations – the volumes of investments of these years.” This comes to prove that at least now Nairit is not in the projects of RosNeft. Perhaps the Russian gas giant is only interested in the space that Nairit occupies for the construction of a new different plant. We have also written that the Iranian SandbadTir INTL Transport Co. LTD also applied to the court to recognize Nairit insolvent, which is quite possible in this hand of cards.

If this happens a manager of bankruptcy will be appointed. All the claimants of the suit will be registered and once the existing property is sold the received funds will be used to acquit the debt of the Intergovernmental Bank. In current conditions the value of the factory is not very high. The existing equipment is outdated and worn out. And they can be sold as metal junk 100 million USD tops. In the near future the employees of the factory also anticipate such developments. The fact of knowing that soon they will be deprived not only of their 15-month salaries but also jobs created unrest both among workers and the management. This means that the Nairit workers will also go out on the streets to protest next to the ones, who are against the pension reform.

By Gayane Khachatryan