Orange Armenia CEO Francis Gelibter has said today that negotiations over the sales of the 100% of shares of Orange Armenia with Ucom are not accounted by financial or political issues.

Francis Gelibter said it to journalists stressing that “Ucom made the first step.”

According to Gelibter, there is a tentative agreement on that Orange Armenia will retain the right to use Orange trademark in the coming 12 months.

“This period follows the final ratification of the deal. The new shareholder will then make a decision on the new brand or rebranding,” said the Orange Armenia CEO.

According to him, telecommunications companies around the world are currently aimed at offering landline and mobile services simultaneously.

“In reality, Orange Armenia is not ready for such services and the sales of the latter’s shares to Ucom pursues two goals. Firstly, once the deal is concluded Armenia will have a serious mobile network operator, which will own the 20% of the total telecommunications market. Secondly, offers combining landline and mobile networks will be offered to subscribers,” he specified.

Francis Gelibter also informed that on August 30 he will leave Armenia due to family-related issues. Prior to that, he had a meeting with the Beeline CEO and VivaCell-MTS General Manager.

“I informed them about our decision and expressed the hope that the competition in the market would be aggressive in positive terms in the future as well. I believe they will have a stronger competitor soon,” said the Orange Armenia CEO.