Yes, a newly formed Armenian company may bid: recent incorporation is not a ground for exclusion under the Law on Procurement, and the law sets no minimum corporate age. Whether it qualifiziert depends on the invitation. If the invitation prescribes experience, staff or turnover criteria, the new company must meet them or borrow them through a consortium or a resource-support contract. If the invitation prescribes no criteria, the bidder instead undertakes to post a qualification security of 15% or 30% of the procurement price once selected.
Im Überblick
- The law recognises five qualification categories: appropriate professional activity, professional experience, technical resources, financial resources and labour (personnel) resources.
- Where the invitation sets no qualification criteria, a qualification security of 15% (procurement price up to AMD 80 million, about USD 221,037) or 30% (above that) replaces them. This route is closed in consultancy and two-stage procedures, which include software development and maintenance.
- A consortium is assessed on the combined qualifications of all members, who are jointly and severally liable.
- Another company’s financial and technical resources can be relied on by contract; its experience and staff cannot.
- Foreign companies may bid directly; no general rule requires an Armenian subsidiary or branch first.
USD equivalents in this article use the Central Bank of Armenia rate of AMD 361.93 per USD on 9 October 2026.
What a tender’s qualification criteria can demand
The Law on Procurement of 16 December 2016 (HO-21-N) limits a procuring body to five kinds of qualification criteria: professional activity appropriate to the contract, professional experience, technical resources, financial resources, and labour or personnel resources. A criterion outside those five, a discriminatory or competition-restricting criterion, or one that does not arise directly from the need to perform the contract is barred.
The invitation must state the criteria, how they will be assessed and which documents prove them. Government Decision 526-N of 4 May 2017, which sets the detailed procurement procedure, allows qualification criteria only by reasoned decision and not at all in electronic auctions. There is no universal checklist: the number and value of comparable contracts, the look-back period and the acceptable proof (contracts, acceptance certificates, reference letters) are whatever the specific invitation says.
Guarantees are a separate regime. The law distinguishes three securities: a bid security covering the bidder’s obligations from submission to signature, a performance security covering the contract, and a qualification security that substitutes for qualification criteria in prescribed cases.
Why a new LLC fails, and when security replaces a track record
A company incorporated last month has no completed contracts, no audited turnover and often no employees on its own payroll. Where the invitation prescribes experience or turnover criteria, there is no exemption for new entities. We found no rule that credits a new company with the past projects of its founders, directors or parent; staff CVs count only where the invitation assesses the personnel proposed for the contract.
The first thing to check in any invitation is which of two regimes it uses. If it prescribes qualification criteria, those must be met. If it prescribes none, the bidder undertakes in its bid to provide a qualification security if selected, and its corporate history is not tested. A bidder cannot pay a security to override criteria the invitation has already set.
The security route is unavailable in consultancy and two-stage procedures. Decision 526-N classes software development and maintenance, professional training and specified design and supervision services as consultancy, so a new IT or engineering company bidding for that work will usually face real experience criteria. A bidder rated by Fitch, Moody’s or S&P at or above Armenia’s sovereign rating (or representing a manufacturer so rated) is exempt from the qualification security.
Security amounts under Decision 526-N
| Sicherheit | Summe | Akzeptiertes Formular |
|---|---|---|
| Bid security | None if the procurement price is AMD 25 million (about USD 69,074) or less; otherwise 5% of the price, or of the bid if higher | Bank guarantee or cash deposit |
| Qualification security (where it replaces criteria) | 15% of the price up to AMD 80 million (about USD 221,037); 30% above; calculated on the contract price if higher | Up to AMD 25 million: unilateral penalty undertaking or cash. Above: bank guarantee or cash |
| Leistungssicherheit | Generally 10% of the contract price | Up to AMD 25 million: unilateral penalty undertaking or cash. Above: bank guarantee or cash |
Design, design-expertise and technical-supervision contracts need a bank guarantee or cash for performance even below AMD 25 million. Where a bank guarantee is submitted as a scan, the original is due by 17:00 Yerevan time on the next working day after the bid deadline. Since 12 November 2025 (amendment HO-336-N), the invitation sets the guarantee’s validity period, and it cannot be shorter than 10 working days.
Parent-company corporate guarantees and insurance guarantees are not interchangeable with bank guarantees under the current text, and a published ARMEPS clarification rejected a parent guarantee in one tender. The law contains no Armenian-bank-only wording, but acceptance of a foreign bank’s guarantee has only been confirmed tender by tender (one clarification accepted a Ukrainian bank’s guarantee with translation), so ask the procuring body through the clarification procedure before relying on one.
Four ways to close the gap
Consortium (joint activity)
Companies may bid together under a joint-activity agreement filed with the bid. The procuring body assesses the combined qualifications of all members, the members are jointly and severally responsible, and no member may also bid separately. This is the cleanest way for a new LLC to use a parent’s or partner’s track record: the experienced company joins the bid as a member. The law sets no pooling formula or per-member minimum, so the invitation governs how experience and turnover add up.
Related or commonly owned companies may not submit competing bids in the same procurement (applied lot by lot); a consortium is the exception. If a member withdraws, the contract can be terminated and the remaining members carry the liability. Pooled qualifications do not pool licences: the member performing licensed work must hold the licence itself.
Contractual resource support
A bidder may rely on another person’s financial and technical resources under a contract establishing that relationship. The provision covers those two categories only, so a parent’s experience or staff cannot be borrowed this way, and common ownership alone does not create the required contract. A parent’s commitment to fund the bidder is also separate from the security instrument itself.
Vergabe von Unteraufträgen
Subcontracting is permitted with disclosure. The bid includes the subcontract and the subcontractor’s details; a company bidding independently in the same procedure cannot also be a subcontractor. The principal stays fully responsible for performance, and a change of subcontractor requires written notice to the procuring body and a replacement agreement within 5 working days. We found no general rule that a subcontractor’s past contracts count toward the bidder’s own experience requirement.
Bid directly, or through a branch or subsidiary
Foreign organisations have equal participation rights and may bid directly; there is no general duty to form an Armenian subsidiary or branch to bid. The Government may restrict participants from particular countries on defence or national-security grounds, and such a restriction must appear in the notice. An existing foreign group with a track record may therefore do better bidding as the parent, or alongside its new Armenian LLC in a consortium, than through the new LLC alone.
Performing the contract is a separate question. A foreign bidder whose activity in Armenia has the characteristics of a permanent establishment must register for tax, and foreign licences are not automatically recognised for licensed activities; both turn on the activity, its location and its duration. We have not yet researched the procurement-specific differences between bidding through a branch and through a subsidiary. Our guides to Firmenregistrierung in Armenien und registering an LLC without visiting cover the formation steps, and our Armenische Steuer page covers registration.
The platform, deadlines and challenges
Notices are published on procurement.am, run by the Ministry of Finance, and suppliers must register on ARMEPS to bid in ARMEPS procedures. The registration form asks for the company’s registration number, its tax identifier, the issuer and the issuing country, so a foreign company can register without first incorporating in Armenia. Non-residents may submit scans of signed originals.
The law provides four procedures: electronic auction, tender (open, two-stage or closed), price quotation and single-source procurement. Minimum bid periods:
- Open tender: at least 40 days for paper bids and 30 days for electronic bids. Specified procuring entities may shorten this to 15 days where the price is AMD 200 million (about USD 552,593) or less, and 10 days are allowed in unforeseeable urgency.
- Electronic auction: at least 15 days, or 10 days where the price is 80 base units or less. One base unit is AMD 1 million (about USD 2,763), so the cut-off is AMD 80 million.
Challenges go to court under the Civil Procedure Code; there is no administrative review board. A requirement in the specification, prequalification notice or invitation (including a qualification criterion that shuts out new entrants) must be challenged before the bid deadline. After the decision to contract is published, a standstill period of at least 10 calendar days applies, except where a single bid was submitted and accepted. Disputes over blacklisting and unilateral termination have a 30-day limit. Since 28 March 2026 (amendment HO-55-N), a procedure may continue despite a challenge where the invitation carries a public-interest, defence or security clause with prior Government agreement.
State procurement vs EBRD- and ADB-funded tenders
Lender funding does not by itself switch off Armenian procurement law. The financing agreement decides which rules govern: Armenian law authorises the Government to set rules for procurement financed under international agreements, and the EBRD’s 2026 Procurement Policies and Rules, in force since 1 September 2026 with project-by-project transition, contemplate procurement under national law in some projects. Read the financing agreement and the tender’s own instructions before assuming either the lender’s rules or ARMEPS apply. ADB-specific eligibility rules for new or foreign-owned bidders were outside the research for this article.
Was ändert sich am 1. Januar 2027?
Two amending laws take effect on 1 January 2027 and are not yet operative. HO-218-N (adopted 6 May 2026) adds restrictions and declarations relating to public officials and does not apply to procedures already started. HO-328-N (adopted 3 July 2026) replaces the bank-specific guarantee wording with guarantees meeting requirements set by the authorised body, and rewrites the qualification-category provision while repealing the provision that currently limits criteria. A bid structure designed now for a tender launched in 2027 should be checked against the amended text.
Pre-incorporation bid-readiness checklist
- Pull two or three recent invitations in your sector and note whether they use qualification criteria or qualification security.
- Check whether your work is classed as consultancy (software, training, design, supervision). If it is, plan for experience criteria.
- Decide which entity holds the track record and whether it should bid itself, join a consortium with the new LLC, or sign a resource-support contract (financial and technical resources only).
- Identify which entity will perform any licensed work and confirm that it holds the licence.
- Line up a bank willing to issue bid and performance guarantees above AMD 25 million, and confirm in writing whether a foreign bank’s guarantee is accepted.
- Check the notice for country restrictions on defence or security grounds.
- Register on ARMEPS before the first deadline, and diarise the pre-deadline window for challenging criteria.
- Assess tax registration and staffing in Armenia for the performance phase; see our Einhaltung der Beschäftigungsvorschriften page for hiring.
Häufig gestellte Fragen
Is there a minimum company age to bid in Armenian public tenders?
Can a new LLC use its parent company’s experience?
How much is the bid security?
Will a parent-company guarantee be accepted in place of a bank guarantee?
Does a foreign company need an Armenian subsidiary to bid?
Can two companies in the same group bid separately on one tender?
How do I challenge a qualification criterion that excludes new companies?
Letzte Aktualisierung: 11. Oktober 2026
