EU-Asia Business Finance Centre holding ready to launch production at Nairit chemical plant in Armenia
10.10.2016,
12:21
EU-ASIA Business Finance Centre Holding is ready to launch production at Nairit rubber-producing plant in Armenia at any moment, Ashot Grigoryan, the president of the holding, told journalists on Friday.
YEREVAN, October 10. /ARKA/. EU-ASIA Business Finance Centre Holding is ready to launch production at Nairit rubber-producing plant in Armenia at any moment, Ashot Grigoryan, the president of the holding, told journalists on Friday.
The EU-ASIA Business Finance Centre unveiled its readiness to invest up to €150 million into Nairit yet in the beginning of this year.
The holding is ready to pay €1 million euro for the right to operate the plant for five years, if it enjoys tax exemption for this period of time, if the debt to the government is written off and other debts are frozen.
Preliminary calculations show that $200 to 300 million is needed to launch Nairit.
In June, the Armenian energy minister said that the re-launch of the chemical plant would be reasonable only with the annual output of at least 10 to 12 tons of rubber.
Along with that, he said that the fate of the plant remains obscure, and the activity of the group set up on March 11 to assess the current situation and outline prospects for further developments has produced little effect so far.
Karen Israelyan, former director of Nairit, thinks up to €30 million is needed to re-launch the plant’s acetylene unit alone, and another €62 million is needed for the vinyl ethylene unit.
Ashot Grigoryan told journalists on Friday that the offer to buy the plant remains in force, and more than that – Nairit EU consortium has been established for an effective coordination of the activity of the holding with its partners from England, Slovakia, Russia and other countries. The aim of the consortium is to re-launch Nairit.
“We are ready to discuss terms for handing this enterprise over to us, and we guarantee that if the plant’s all debts are written off, we will be ready to embark on investment,” Grigoryan said. “At the first stage, €10-20 million will be invested in resumption of acetylene production, after which larger investments will be made into vinyl ethylene unit etc.”
The businessman said that if so, the plant’s products will be exported already in six month.
This initiative, he said, has already been discussed with Armenia’s new government, which has already reacted positively to it and is expected to release its final decision in a few months.
“Our investors, on their side, have gauged the plant’s potential and think that it can operate, it has scientific capacity and it can become a modernized enterprise very soon.”
In his opinion, the government will uphold this offer, since the longer the plant remains idle the harder its recovery will be.
“More than that, the government will lose nothing by handing the plant over to us, since even if we fail to fulfill our contractual obligations on investments, the government will take it back,” Grigoryan said.
He also said that the holding will not attract loans for developing the plant, since it has investors within its own structure.
In his words, the holding’s Chinese partner has expressed willingness to join the project, and one of the holding’s companies has an agreement with China for hundreds of billions of dollars and is ready to make investments in Armenia.
Besides, the holding is ready to transport and export final products and to find necessary contracts.
“We hope we will manage to come to agreement with the Armenian government to re-launch Nairit,” Grigoryan said. “Remarkable is that in other countries, such as Slovakia, the country authorities pay money to companies for launching such projects.” --0---
The EU-ASIA Business Finance Centre unveiled its readiness to invest up to €150 million into Nairit yet in the beginning of this year.
The holding is ready to pay €1 million euro for the right to operate the plant for five years, if it enjoys tax exemption for this period of time, if the debt to the government is written off and other debts are frozen.
Preliminary calculations show that $200 to 300 million is needed to launch Nairit.
In June, the Armenian energy minister said that the re-launch of the chemical plant would be reasonable only with the annual output of at least 10 to 12 tons of rubber.
Along with that, he said that the fate of the plant remains obscure, and the activity of the group set up on March 11 to assess the current situation and outline prospects for further developments has produced little effect so far.
Karen Israelyan, former director of Nairit, thinks up to €30 million is needed to re-launch the plant’s acetylene unit alone, and another €62 million is needed for the vinyl ethylene unit.
Ashot Grigoryan told journalists on Friday that the offer to buy the plant remains in force, and more than that – Nairit EU consortium has been established for an effective coordination of the activity of the holding with its partners from England, Slovakia, Russia and other countries. The aim of the consortium is to re-launch Nairit.
“We are ready to discuss terms for handing this enterprise over to us, and we guarantee that if the plant’s all debts are written off, we will be ready to embark on investment,” Grigoryan said. “At the first stage, €10-20 million will be invested in resumption of acetylene production, after which larger investments will be made into vinyl ethylene unit etc.”
The businessman said that if so, the plant’s products will be exported already in six month.
This initiative, he said, has already been discussed with Armenia’s new government, which has already reacted positively to it and is expected to release its final decision in a few months.
“Our investors, on their side, have gauged the plant’s potential and think that it can operate, it has scientific capacity and it can become a modernized enterprise very soon.”
In his opinion, the government will uphold this offer, since the longer the plant remains idle the harder its recovery will be.
“More than that, the government will lose nothing by handing the plant over to us, since even if we fail to fulfill our contractual obligations on investments, the government will take it back,” Grigoryan said.
He also said that the holding will not attract loans for developing the plant, since it has investors within its own structure.
In his words, the holding’s Chinese partner has expressed willingness to join the project, and one of the holding’s companies has an agreement with China for hundreds of billions of dollars and is ready to make investments in Armenia.
Besides, the holding is ready to transport and export final products and to find necessary contracts.
“We hope we will manage to come to agreement with the Armenian government to re-launch Nairit,” Grigoryan said. “Remarkable is that in other countries, such as Slovakia, the country authorities pay money to companies for launching such projects.” --0---
