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The ongoing protests in Yerevan against a hike in power tariffs and the promises of Armenian authorities to nationalize Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) CJSC may force ENA’s owner – Russian Inter RAO UES to sell that company, Kommersant paper said Monday.

The paper’s sources say Inter RAO already conducted negotiations with Russian businessmen of Armenian descent, in particular with Samvel Karapetyan, the owner of Tashir Group. The paper notes it is not easy to find a new owner as unbalanced tariffs led ENA to accumulate considerable debts, while protesters demand that the authorities should not use state budget funds to compensate for the company losses.

The interlocutor of the newspaper claims that ENA will be purchased by Samvel Karapetyan, and negotiations started even before the electricity price hike. Representatives of S. Karapetyan-owned Tashir Group in Armenia denied this information.

“If a statement about the sale is made, then any company may study the terms to understand how economically sound the purchase of the debt-ridden company is,” members of the Group told ‘Kommersant’.

The Russian office of Tashir Group “are unaware of this information”. Yet the newspaper’s another source familiar with the situation in Armenia’s energy sector confirmed the fact of negotiations with Tashir Group as well as “another Russian businessman of Armenian descent”.