Kapan Airport Receives Funding Again from Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine

The governor of Syunik, Robert Ghukasian, has informed Hetq that the funding for Kapan Airport is currently being provided by the charitable foundation of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine. This is reported by Hetq.

On November 11, 2021, the government decided to allocate a grant of 49.5 million drams to the airport's concession holder, the Syunik Airport LLC, to settle accumulated debts (including payments for radio frequency, general operational expenses, and salaries). The government's involvement was not accidental, since the charitable foundation of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine owns 50% of the LLC, while the other 50% belongs to the Foundation for the Development and Investment of the Syunik Region, established by the government but managed by the Syunik provincial administration.

After the change of power in 2018, the relations between the Armenian owners of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine and the authorities gradually started to strain, reaching a peak perhaps after the 44-day war of 2020. The situation somewhat de-escalated in the autumn of 2021 when Russian businessman Roman Trotsenko and his partners acquired 60% of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine through the Russian company Promishlennaya Kompaniya and then gifted 15% to Armenia. Thus, Promishlennaya Kompaniya became the largest shareholder of the combine with 45% while maintaining good relations with the Armenian authorities.

Already this summer, Trotsenko's team acquired an additional 12.5% from the Poloskova-Hakobyan-Ambarian trio and some additional shares that had not been distributed among the shareholders, after which another 6.87% was gifted to Armenia.

Currently, 21.87% of Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine LLC is owned by the state, 40.21% belongs to Gleb Trotsenko, son of Roman Trotsenko, 10.05% is owned by their partner Mirzaaziz Musakhanov, and 12.49% is held by former Russian politician and businessman Mikhail Zurabov. This means that the ownership of 84.6% of the combine's shares is currently distributed among the shareholders.

It should be noted that the 21.87% shares owned by the state have been entrusted to the trust management of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF). The chairman of the ANIF board of directors is former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

Thus, it is no coincidence that after the state received shares in the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, and the main shareholder became a team that maintains good relations with the government, the combine once again undertook the financing of Kapan's Syunik Airport, thereby easing the burden on the government and the state budget.

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