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opened. According to the Nikora Trade Development Plan, by the end of 2020 the company should have up to 450 shopping units across the country. As of today it has 285 stores.
9.1.9 Renewable energy sector news
Georgia is to initiate the privatisation of the 20MW Gori wind farm in four to six weeks, Economy Minister Natia Turnava said on June 19 in comments on the country’s privatisation plans.
The plant was commissioned in the autumn of 2016. It has an installed capacity of 20.7MWh and has involved investments worth $34mn. Its annual capacity is 84.1GWh.
Turnava said that certain assets belonging to the state are difficult to sell since special advance preparations are required. The wind farm located in Shida Kartli (Qartli) region, is among such assets, she added.
The wind farm’s financial liabilities towards the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) make the privatisation procedures relatively complex, the minister added.
The EBRD arranged a $22mn syndicated loan to Qartli Windfarm LLC (the operator of Gori wind farm) for the development, construction and operation of the wind farm, providing a $10mn tranche itself. The remainder of the investment capital, besides the $22mn, was provided by the Georgian Energy Development Fund (GEDF).
The government of Georgia on June 17 was set to endorse a decision to grant a six-month extension to the deadline for raising financing for the Anaklia Development Consortium’s (ADC) project to build a deep-water port on the Black Sea coast.
The investment is to be rolled out under a public private partnership and would involve $600mn of financing for its first stage, with the eventual total cost estimated at $2.5bn.
ADC asked the government for an extension during a meeting on May 21. “We have accepted the date the consortium suggested,” Georgian Infrastructure Minister Maya Tskitishvili said, as quoted by Agenda.ge . T his was the sixth time the deadline would be extended, she added.
The six-month period should be used to address eight requirements outlined by international financial institutions (IFIs). Of those, seven have been agreed in principle. One issue, relating to the government providing some guarantees as regards the turnover of the port, under an agreement similar to the contracts for difference in the energy industry, remains in limbo. The issue became more urgent for investors with reports that the government was seemingly encouraging the development of another deep-water port in Poti, south of Anaklia, although current plans see it as being much smaller than what ADC has in mind.
ADC has already issued an official statement welcoming the decision to prolong the term for raising financing by another six months. It said that the consortium has already mobilised needed capital for the project; however the extension of the deadline would be used to effectively finish the process of negotiations with international banks.
45 GEORGIA Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com