Electricity Networks of Armenia hits back at nationalization plan, warns of legal fight

By Lia Avagyan

The acting CEO of Armenia’s Electricity Networks (ENA), Davit Ghazinyan, has strongly criticized the government’s planned nationalization of the company, comparing the process to a “presumption of madness” and warning that legal action is imminent.

Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on Monday, Ghazinyan said the legislative package proposing ENA’s nationalization, which were submitted last week by the ruling Civil Contract party and scheduled for debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday, is “legally illiterate” and lacks justification based on the company’s performance. “We are not going to operate based on the presumption of madness,” he said. “Throughout the years, there has not even been a hint from regulators that the company is at risk of losing its license.”

ENA is Armenia’s sole electricity distribution operator, responsible for delivering power to residential, commercial, and industrial consumers across the entire country. It operates the low- and medium-voltage grid, manages metering and billing, and is regulated by the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC).

Ghazinyan presented detailed data on the company’s performance since 2015, when it was acquired by the Russia-based Tashir Group. According to him, annual audits have been conducted by reputable international firms, including KPMG, BDO Armenia, and Grant Thornton, all of which have issued positive assessments. Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), which oversees ENA’s activities, has never indicated serious concerns, he added.

“The PSRC determines our benchmarks and monitors our investments,” Ghazinyan said. “In 2023, Armenia saw an 8.7 percent improvement in outage frequency and an 18.1 percent improvement in restoration time compared with the previous year. Our investment program was 91.8 percent fulfilled.”

He also insisted that no non-compliant expenditures have been flagged by the regulator and denied any operational deficiencies that could justify a state takeover. “The PSRC has never assessed our performance as poor enough to warrant developments of this nature.”

In response to a journalist’s question, Ghazinyan described the draft law enabling ENA’s nationalization as “a legally unqualified bill,” noting that “every word matters when the state is trying to seize a functioning private company.” He went on to accuse the government of engaging in a campaign against ENA using “non-procedural, rule-breaking methods,” and announced that the company is preparing to challenge the move through all available legal channels, including the possibility of taking the case to international arbitration.

“We have a strong legal team and full confidence in our position,” Ghazinyan said. “Being in the right gives you strength.”

The Armenian government’s decision to nationalize ENA was first floated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shortly after an interview on June 17 in which the Tashir Group’s owner, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, voiced support for the Armenian Apostolic Church and Catholicos Karekin II—figures increasingly at odds with Pashinyan’s administration. Days later, Karapetyan’s Yerevan residence was raided, and he was arrested and remanded in pre-trial detention for two months. Simultaneously, law-enforcement officers carried out large-scale searches at several Tashir Pizza cafés, another of Karapetyan’s businesses.

The timing of the nationalization announcement has fueled speculation that the move is politically motivated, particularly since ENA is one of Karapetyan’s largest assets in Armenia. Ghazinyan did not directly address the political context but said the company would respond to the pressure through lawful resistance, not political rhetoric.