25% of Georgia’s Railways to be sold

Independent analysts have commented before on how Georgia has very few state assets left to sell. Nonetheless Georgia is on the verge once again of selling its assets of strategic importance. It has become known through the Reuters news agency that 25% of Georgian Railways shares are to be sold on the London Stock Exchange. Though Georgian officials see nothing wrong with this fact, independent analysts are assessing this very negatively. Because there remains the possibility of Russia acquiring these shares, it creates a dangerous scenario for Georgia. The 25% shares of Georgian Railways are estimated to be worth approximately USD 250 million. Critics of the plan to sell the shares are upset that this decision became known to the general public post factum and without any preliminary discussion. Independent analysts have urged Georgian authorities to refrain from taking this step, unfortunately it is too late. It is known that Georgian Railways has a current debt of over 1 billion USD, making this deal inevitable due to financial conditions. Some skeptics say however that this was a deliberate step taken by Georgian authorities.