Business career
Industrial Union of Donbas
In 1997, Mkrtchyan joined the Industrial Union of Donbas (ISD) to head the metallurgy department. The department was specifically created by Serhiy Taruta for Mkrtchyan when he joined ISD, as ISD originally focused on gas operations. Allegedly, the two had known each other since the early 1990s, when Mkrtchyan was a trader near Azovstal, with Taruta working within the sales department of Azovstal. Mkrtchyan would end up heading the department for only five years, as he was promoted to becoming one of the three partners and co-owners of ISD in 2002. This occurred after Vitaliy Haiduk split from Taruta when he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. Taruta retained the chairmanship of the board of ISD, while Mkrtchyan was appointed as general director, running operations and the structuring of the enterprises within ISD. Mkrtchyan then held a joint 49.9% ownership of the company with Taruta as co-owners, or a 25% stake in ISD as a shareholder, depending on the source.
Under Mkrtchyan's tenure, ISD increased and consolidated its stakes in Alchevsk, namely the Alchevsk Metallurgical Complex (AMK) and Alchevsk coke plant, with AMK being entirely rebuilt from 2003 to 2013. ISD also bought out the Dnieper Metallurgical Combine in 2003 for 98.81% of the company at 711.549 million hryvnias, which also led to large reconstruction efforts beginning in February 2004. Over the next few years, ISD also bought out multiple metallurgical enterprises in Poland and Hungary and plants in Fujairah and in his native Armvair. The Armvair plant, specifically, was built starting in 2008 for 1.5 billion rubles, although it was later finished and built more towards Krasnodar, with Mkrtchyan signing on to invest in projects in Armvair in return. However, between 2009-10, a significant amount of ISD's stake was bought out by a consortium via the Russian VEB, which included investors headed by Alexander Katunin. The investments were worth $8 billion for 50% and 2 shares. Other sources described the real owners as VEB; the company could not buy foreign assets directly, so it did so through intermediaries. Management was allowed to stay within Ukraine after the buyout, including Mkrtchyan, although in practice VEB appointed Yevhen Potapov as the financial director of ISD, and most major decisions had to be approved by Potapov.
After the War in the Donbas, Mkrtchyan said that ISD retained most of its assets, although the company lost control of the assets in Alchevsk once a trade blockade began in 2016. ISD eventually lost control of the Alchevsk enterprises to the pro-Russian, separatist Luhansk People's Republic in November 2017, which led to Mkrtchyan appealing to a court in Russia, although nothing ended up happening. In 2021, the Dnieper Metallurgical Combine was sold off with the main asset of ISD being ISD Dunaferr in Hungary at this point, although by that point Mkrtchyan was not formally involved anymore with the company due to him being in prison in Russia.
Sports
Metalurh Donetsk
Mkrtchyan, as one of the co-owners of ISD, was also involved with the ISD-created Metalurh Donetsk and was one of its co-owners together with Taruta and Haiduk. Donetsk had existed for around five seasons after being revived in the 1990s, and ISD became its sponsor in 2001. Although Taruta was formally president of the club, Mkrtchyan was in charge of most of the matters of the club, with Mkrtchyan extensively corresponding with coaches about squad picks He was also credited with selecting Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the team because of his Armenian heritage. Up until December 2014, Mkrtchyan remained the club's main investor, although by 2015 the club folded due to funding issues.
FC Kuban Krasnodar
In November 2007, Mkrtchyan himself acquired 50% stake in FC Kuban Krasnodar in Russia from Oleg Deripaska after it was relegated from the Russian Premier League. In 2008, Deripaska gave his 50% away to the regional administration of Krasnodar Krai, which put it up for auction at nearly 1.5 billion rubles, which Mkrtchyan ultimately won. Mkrtchyan in the end had 75% of the stakes of the clu at that point, which he held through ISK-Invest, while 25% of the region was owned by the krai. Mkrtchyan then appointed his nephew, Suren, as general director of the club while his uncle became the financier of Kuban. ISD was also brought in upon Mkrtchyan buying the club, with the company supplying most of the club's budget. Under Mkrtchyan, Kuban eventually won promotion back to the Premier league and played in the Europa League, for which he would be awarded the "Hero of Labour of Kuban" for.
At the same time, though, he was accused of only ever visiting the club every couple of months, with a long-time friend, Serhiy Doronchenko, handling much of the club, who dismissed the team's coach, which led to multiple departures. After the start of the War in the Donbas, Mkrtchyan stopped funding the club, and he sold off some of his stakes while the krai started taking ownership of the club. By July, he said he no longer had anything to do with the club, and for some time retained influeence through Doronchenko but he ultimately left after Ivelin Popov was sold off, which Mkrtchyan disagreed with. Despite this, Mkrtchyan at the same time said that the club would invest in a new stadium after it was not selected as a host city for the 2018 World Cup, although others accused Mkrtchyan of never planning to build the arena. A few months later, in September, it was confirmed that he was no longer financing the club, and that he had asked Veniamin Kondratyev to leave entirely. He finally withdraw form Kuban in April 2016, and gave up his shares to the state, although the debts of the club were very high when he left.
Other clubs
Mkrtchyan eventually also bought out FC Urartu, a club in Yerevan, Armenia, that was known as FC Banants at that point. The club was formerly owned by Dzhevan Cheloyants, a Russian business partner. He called Banants a "social project" until he eventually gave the stake in the club back to Cheloyants in 2016, when he also pulled out of Kuban. After Banants, he became a chief investor in Torpedo Armavir in his hometown, bringing in Valery Karpin as coach for the club. However, that same season, the club was relegated to the Russian First League, and although he continued to retain the club for some time, he eventually gave it to Cheloyants upon his conviction in 2019. Cheloyants said that he could return to the club if he wished, although it would eventually be dissolved in 2020. In addition to the other two, there were rumours in December 2014 that he was planning to invest in and develop Anzhi Makhachkala, a Russian club in Dagestan, but only if the club would return to the Russian Premier League of Russia. Said Kerimov was eventually reported to have become a partner in Anzhi with him, although the deal eventually fell apart.
