Nairit Management Pursued a ‘Policy of Destroying the Plant,’ Says Former Director

Since 2007, the management of Nairit Plant has pursued a policy of destroying the plant, Karen Israelyan, who was the plant's director from 2005–2007, told Pastinfo.am [AM], adding that for years, there has been a targeted program to oust Nairit from the market. 

"Nairit had become a big competitor to the Russian company Bayer; it had practically conquered the Russian market," said the former director. 

Israelyan partly blames the Government of Armenia for the current state of the plant, since it owns10% of the shares and, according to him, if the government exercised control over at least that 10% and didn't trust the leadership of Nairit, undesirable developments could have been prevented in time.

"The situation on January 1, 2009, was that Nairit's owner, Rhinoville Property Limited, had to make an investment of around $60 million and, according to the contract, in case of default, it should have been deprived of its share. It defaulted, and the government was aware of this and could've taken [the plant] away from it, and in this case the government again would become the 100% shareholder of the plant and would pursue its own policy," said Israelyan. 

Pastinfo.am notes that due to the management of this offshore company, Nairit Plant today has debts totalling nearly $300 million.