Armenia’s regulator has cleared Team LLC’s proposed acquisition of Veon’s local unit Beeline.
CommsUpdate reports that the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) granted approval on 9th July despite an impending legal challenge from rival operator Ucom, which has called for the merger to be blocked. No value for the merger has been revealed.
The SCPEC’s approval is conditional on Team LLC abiding by certain requirements – in particular, it may not lay off more than 10% of its total employees for its first six months after the merger closes. After Team agreed to this, the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) green lit the acquisition.
Team LLC is a new firm founded by Hayk and Aleksandr Yesayan in April 2020 – the same month that the brothers departed Ucom. They had been part of the team that founded the operator but left after clashing with shareholders over a potential merger between Beeline and Ucom.
Reportedly, Ucom shareholders wanted Beeline CEO Andrey Pyatakhin to lead the merged unit if the deal was cleared, prompting the walkout. Following the Yesayan’s exit, Veon walked away from merger talks and opened negotiations with Team LLC in May this year.
