Armenian authorities to suggest major businessman selling his supermarket chain to Carrefour, newspaper says

YEREVAN, March 29. /ARKA/.  Armenian authorities decided to start negotiating with major businessman Samvel Alexanyan over selling Yerevan City supermarket chain to Carrefour French company, Zhamanak (Time) newspaper says.

On March 19, head of Armenia’s anti-monopoly commission Artak Shaboyan invited Carrefour reps to discuss the problems the hypermarket chain encountered on its way to Armenia.

According to Zhamanak, if the deal takes place it will cause a sensation and will demonstrate the government’s determination to change its economic policy.

“If the authorities do want Carrefour to purchase Alexanyan’s major shop chain and take such a massive first step to the Armenian market, it means they, finally, decided to demonstrate political will in de-monopolizing import and product markets,” the newspaper says.

According to earlier mass media reports, Russia-based Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, the owner of Dalma Garden Mall in Yerevan (ranked 353rd in Forbes rating), suspended a contract with Carrefour. Allegedly, the decision was taken under the pressure from Armenian oligarch Samvel Alexanyan who controls the bulk of imports of essential goods.

In response to these allegations, prime minister Tigran Sargsyan said the Armenian government will do its best to let the French company come to Armenia as ‘the government is very much interested in it.’ The prime minister also said it was not a contract, but a memorandum of intent signed between the sides.

Armenia’s minister of economy Tigran Davtyan, in his turn, said that delays in Carrefour’s arrival are of purely private nature and may occur in any business.

Carrefour S.A. is a French multinational retailer headquartered in Boulogne Billancourt, France, in Greater Paris. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world (with 1,395 hypermarkets at the end of 2009), the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue, and the third largest in profit (after Wal-Mart and Tesco). Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia. –0--