Partnership Fund announces auction for alienation of Telasi shares
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, August 11
The Partnership Fund is announcing a public auction to sell its 24.5% stake in JSC Telasi.
The starting price of the public auction is the equivalent of $10,511,211.08 in GEL. The mentioned share was evaluated by one of the big four audit companies, which is not named. The amount of the step is GEL50,000. The price recorded during the auction will be converted into US Dollars at the exchange rate set by the National Bank on the day of the auction announcement. It should be noted that the winner of the auction will not be able to purchase shares if he fails to obtain the consent of the Georgian Energy and Water Regulatory Commission following the rules established by the Law of Georgia on Energy and Water Supply.
The public auction was announced on 10th of August, 2020 and will be held on 9th of September at the office of JSC "Partnership Fund" at the following address: Tbilisi, Vukol Beridze Street N6. Any interested person can get acquainted with the terms of the auction at www.eauction.ge, application #: 117207RBS67189920, auction #: 117207, lot #: 671899
According to the Partnership Fund the decision to sell Telasi shares was made based on a government decree. As a result, the Georgian state-owned company will no longer have shares.
Meanwhile the process of reforming the Partnership Fund has started. It is planned to change the management structure of the fund and transfer it to the government to manage the state-owned enterprises. Presumably, this is related to the alienation of Telasi shares, however, no official statements have been made on this issue so far. In October last year, the Minister of Economy Natia Turnava did not confirm the information about the selling shares of ‘Telasi’. According to media reports, businessmen Khvicha Makatsaria and Vano Chkhartishvili wanted to buy Telasi shares.
At the end of last year, Davit Saganelidze, the head of the Partnership Fund, said in an interview with bm.ge that in his opinion, the Partnership Fund should manage investment projects after the reform and should not own Telasi shares, gas and oil corporation, state electricity system.
The largest state-owned investment fund, the ‘Partnership Fund’ (which owns shares in several loss-making state-owned enterprises) may move to budget funding after the reform. Saganelidze, says that he does not support the maintenance of the existing model of financing the fund and believes that it would be better if the partnership fund is financed from the state budget.
At this stage, the Partnership Fund has limited access to new investment projects. In July, it became known that the Partnership Fund had handed over the state electricity system and ‘Esco’ to the Ministry of Economy. The fund has also been selling the Borjomi-Likani hotel for several months.
