Ivanishvili donates material assets worth $1.5 bln to Cartu Charity Foundation
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, January 13
Former Prime Minister of Georgia and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili has told Entrepreneur online magazine that he will donate 90% of his material assets worth $1.5 billion, except those with credit or other obligations, to the Cartu Charity Foundation.
Ivanishvili said that he and his wife have $ 200 million at their disposal, which was beyond a billion and a half in capital. Thus, the former GD chairman transferred the businesses and a significant portion of the real estate he owned through offshore companies to the Cartu Fund. As it is known, the changes were registered in the last days of December 2020.
The biggest change was registered on December 31, when the ‘Tourism Development Fund’, which in turn owns the facilities under construction ‘Panorama Tbilisi’ and ‘Paragraph Shekvetili’ was transferred to the Cartu Fund. Prior to the change, 100% of these companies were owned by Panamanian FRANKSTON INTERNATIONAL SA. The volume of the authorized capital of the company according to the financial statements for 2018 was GEL 580 million.
Tourism Development Fund includes Tabori Resorts; Sololaki Hills; Hotel project under construction in Ganmukhuri, as well as real estate in Chakvi and Abastumani.
On December 31, 2020, the owner changed to Bidzina Ivanishvili's construction and engineering companies - Elita Burji and Burji, both of which were transferred to the Cartu Foundation. Elita Burji itself owns a number of subsidiaries that own real estate in Chorvila, Tbilisi, Batumi and Bakuriani.
The assets will also include Ivanishvili’s collection of paintings.
26 assets have already been donated to the foundation per the State Registry Agency, while 2 others are being transferred.
The change of ownership did not affect the projects managed by the Co-Investment Fund. The owner of Axis Towers; Gallery of Tbilisi; the hydropower plants under construction are unchanged.
Cartu International Charity Foundation is founded by Cartu Group, and the list of Cartu Group owners is offshore companies owned by Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Ivanishvili explained the reason for such a move by recalling that he had previously announced that he would eventually spend at least 90% of his property on public and public affairs a year and a half ago. He underscored that this statement did not receive a proper response from the media and the public at the time. Former GD chairman stated that the purpose of the assets ‘cannot be changed’ in the process of management or alienation, because most of them ‘are not ordinary business projects’ but projects which are targeted for the development of individual branches, or even entire regions, and are designed to ensure improvements in economic, tourism and other fields.
