Hetq.am was able to find out what activities Zhe Zhang and Konstantin Sokolov, who pose as the new owners of MTS Armenia, are conducting, as well as find out some details of their previous transactions, including the sale of Armbusinessbank.
On January 24, MTS Armenia CJSC, represented on the telecommunications market by the Viva-MTS brand, announced a change of shareholder. This meant that MTS Armenia is no longer part of the Russian MTS Group. Its new shareholder is registered in Cyprus company “Fedilco Group Limited”the owners of which, according to the operator, are European and Asian investors.
“MTS Armenia” named the final beneficiaries-owners of “Fedilco Group Limited”. They turned out to be Zhe Zhang and Konstantin Sokolov, “professional investors with extensive experience in the fields of telecommunications, finance, energy and asset management.”
Who are these people, what do they do and what do they have to do with the sale of “Armbusinessbank”?
Let us recall that until now MTS Armenia CJSC (in 2004-2017 the company was called K-Telecom) through a number of companies belonged to the Russian MTS. Thus, the 100% shareholder of MTS Armenia CJSC was registered in Cyprus Aramayo Investments Limited companywhich in turn is wholly owned by the Luxembourg-based offshore “Allegretto Holding Sarl”. The latter is a subsidiary of the Russian public joint stock company Mobile TeleSystems. At the same time, 42.085% of MTS shares belong to the public joint-stock company “Joint-Stock Financial Corporation “Sistema”, the largest shareholder of which (49.2%) is a Russian entrepreneur, billionaire Vladimir Evtushenkov.
This is precisely the scheme presented by MTS Armenia in the declaration of real beneficiaries approved on March 2, 2023, posted in the state register of legal entities of the Republic of Armenia.
Tarkhanidis, who sells cars through the social network Facebook, probably could not have had such financial resources to acquire MTS Armenia CJSC, which is one of the largest taxpayers in the country. Let us add that Tarkhanidis, in the past and now, has held and still holds the positions of director or secretary in other Cypriot companies.
The secretary of “Fedilco Group Limited” from the date of its creation until the beginning of 2023 was the Cypriot company “GIF Capital Limited”. According to her website, the company’s staff consists of highly qualified concession managers, tax consultants, lawyers and accountants with extensive knowledge in the areas of international tax planning, protection and concession asset management. From February 2023 to this day, the secretary of Fedilco Group Limited is GIF Management Limited, a subsidiary of GIF Capital Limited. Logic dictates that Manolis Tarkhanidis was the fictitious owner of Fedilco Group Limited, and, apparently, the main functions of this company are performed by GIF Capital Limited.
After the Public Services Regulatory Commission rejected the application of MTS Armenia in April 2023 and Fedilco Group Limited failed to become its indirect owner, changes occurred in the Cyprus company.
Manolis Tarhanidis, who in October 2023 was the new fictitious owner of Fedilco Group Limited, transferred his share in this company to the Cypriot Nofal Holdings Limited (75%) and Ortasano Investments Limited (25%). These twin companies were founded in April 2022 on the same day, moreover, two days before the creation of “Fedilco Group Limited”. It will probably not come as a surprise that the first owner and director of both companies was again Tarhanidis, and the secretary was GIF Capital Limited, which was then replaced by GIF Management Limited.
In July 2023, Manolis Tarkhanidis transferred the shares in Nofal and Ortasano registered in his name to another Cypriot company, Wimthed Limited, which was created a year before. “Wimthed” also became the director of “Nofal” and “Ortasano”, replacing Tarkhanidis in these posts.
The owner of “Wimthed Limited” from the day the company was founded to this day is a citizen of Cyprus Andreas Ourris, who also holds the positions of director and secretary of this company. In these two capacities, A. Ourris is a participant in many Cypriot companies that are affiliated with GIF Capital Limited. Moreover, his wife Marharyta Ourri — employee of “GIF Capital”. M. Ourri’s maiden name is Romanova, she comes from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Margarita Ourri, like her husband, holds senior positions in various Cypriot companies. All this suggests that Andreas Ourris, like Tarhanidis, is playing a fictitious role.
Thus, “Fedilco Group Limited”, its owner – the company “Nofal Holdings Limited”, “Ortasano Investments Limited” and the shareholder of these companies “Wimthed Limited” were created in April-July 2022. The owners of the companies were registered persons (M. Tarkhanidis, A. Ourris) affiliated with the company “GIF Capital Limited”, which provides services in the field of entrepreneurship. This means that through these companies the real beneficial owners behind them were hidden.
But the problem is that in November 2022, the European Court, which is the highest body of the judicial system of the European Union, blocked access to data of real/ultimate beneficial owners registered in EU countries (UBO, ultimate beneficial owner). In other words, official information about the real owners of the above-mentioned companies based in an EU member state, Cyprus, is confidential.
However, according to our source, this is how the situation was presented to the Armenian authorities. Zhang and Sokolov indicated their family trusts (assets transferred to concession management), origin, details of activity, the nature of which, as well as other necessary information, were not disclosed as the source of financial resources for concluding the transaction.
Marketscreener.com associates Zhang’s name with educational and business organizations operating in various countries around the world – in China, including Hong Kong, the USA, Canada, and the UK. According to the same source, currently the Chinese entrepreneur takes various management positions in American, British and Hong Kong companies. In particular, he is the director seven British companies, of which we can highlight “KX Power Limited”, which is engaged in asset management, development and investment in the fields of renewable energy and power generation. Zhang – CEO of KXP (CEO). Moreover, in British companies, Zhang’s country of residence is indicated as the UK. Of Zhang’s companies, you should pay attention to the one based in Hong Kong “SIFT Capital Partners Limited”, specializing in onshore and offshore asset management. Zhe Zhang is the founder and CEO of this company. “SIFT Capital” has branches in many countries, including Cyprus (“SIFT Capital Partners Cyprus Ltd”). It probably won’t seem strange that the director of this company is the above-mentioned Andreas Ourries, and the secretary is GIF Management Limited.
But what is much more interesting is that “SIFT Capital Partners” participated in the management of the new foreign owner of the former “Armbusinessbank”, renamed “AMIO Bank”. Moreover, as Hetq.am’s source notes, Zhe Zhang and his partner Konstantin Sokolov are involved in the process of purchasing Armbusinessbank.
This means that the company of a Chinese businessman specializing in asset management indirectly controlled 75% of the shares of Armbusinessbank.
As for Zhang’s partner Konstantin Sokolov, according to our source, he acted as a representative consultant for the foreign companies that own Armbusinessbank (see top photo). According to the source, Zhang and Sokolov specialize in transactions for the purchase of companies, within the framework of which they organize negotiations, agree on the details of the transaction and in this regard represent the real beneficiaries (that is, they are not the beneficial owners themselves), conclude transactions, transfer documents to the relevant government agencies and etc.
Our studies also allow us to conclude that Zhe Zhang and K. Sokolov are only managers, functionaries who work for the owners who remain in the shadows.
Hetq.am found out a number of facts about Sokolov, some companies affiliated with him and his previous transactions, which contain dubious episodes. But we will talk about this in the next article.
