New shareholder of Air Armenia pledges $30 million investment

YEREVAN, December 19. / ARKA /. The new shareholder of Air Armenia airline - East Prospect Fund – has pledged a $30 million investment in the company. Speaking at a news conference today in Yerevan 

East Prospect Fund chief manager Vladimir Bobylev said the fund’s main objective will be to develop the airline. He said under the agreement the first stage investment will amount to $30 million and besides the company has a tentative agreement on bringing new planes. 

‘We have a clear plan for the company's restructuring and a new business plan," said Bobylev

He said East Prospect Fund has chosen Air Armenia because it believes that Armenia will become a prospering country and the airline will become a successful carrier.

Bobylev said the fund owns two factories, a quartzite deposit, estimated by Ukrainian Geological Service at $2.5 billion and lots of land in the Kiev region.

He also said that the East Prospect Fund is  a licensed financial institution and not an offshore company.

 “Our license terms are very strict. We are not a company, we are a fund. Our regulations are similar to those of banks, but unlike other financial institutions, our fund is working within financial law. In fact we are a Western financial institution that has come to Armenia," said Bobylev.

Air Armenia CEO Arsen Avetisyan said the airline will resume flights in 2015 March. He said the airline is working now to bring back two its planes which are in Amsterdam for an overhaul.

He said the agreement with East Prospect Fund was signed December 12 and now it owns 49 percent in Air Armenia. The remaining 51 percent belong to the CEO. 

According to Arsen Avetisyan, in 2015 the airline will operate five aircraft to make flights to Thailand, China and some other destinations.

In late October, Air Armenia decided to restructure its finances and change the flights schedule after seeing an 80 percent drop in air tickets sales.  In a statement in late October Air Armenia blamed the dramatic drop on a ‘panic’ among investors and customers after Rosaeronavigatsia, a Russian federal air navigation service, said the Armenian airline had huge outstanding debts.

Air Armenia began operating commercial passenger flights in 2013 after the bankruptcy and liquidation of Armenia’s national air carrier Armavia. -0-