Armenia's famous brandy factory in Yerevan is to be sold off to the French company Pernod Ricard.

The Armenian Economy Minister, Vagran Avanesyan, said a contract for the thirty-million dollar deal would be signed next week.

The Yerevan distillery has been producing brandy for more than one hundred years and connoisseurs are said to have included Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill.

Since independence, the factory has been hit hard by economic problems, falling demand and competition from illegal distillers.