Page 50 - GEORptSep19

9.2.2 Infrastructure and construction corporate news
American company C onti International LLC has reportedly pulled out of the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) behind the project to develop a $2.5bn deep water port on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. AccentNews.ge reported the investment exit, quoting ADC executive director Levan Akhvlediani. A withdrawal by infrastructure construction services company Conti International would very likely bring about the mothballing of the port project, at least under the arrangement inked by ADC and Georgia’s government in 2016.
New Jersey-headquartered Conti is one of the main partners in the ADC consortium, besides Georgia’s TBC Holding.
Conti made its decision to pull out of the project because of sluggish progress, sources briefed AccentNews. In particular, it was unhappy that no agreement has yet been reached between the government and banks lined up to support the investment, despite what it described as “rhetoric” from officials on how the state backs both the project and the consortium.
“The rhetoric remains just rhetoric: the consortium has not received support from the Georgian authorities for the project and [Conti] has made its decision,” a source quoted by the news service said.
“This is the result of a very long-term, very aggressive campaign to discredit mounted by the government against the consortium,” remarked independent analyst Gia Khukhashvili in comments published by InterPressNews.ge. He added that the withdrawal of Conti would in his opinion mean the exit of the ‘West’ from the project, with Russian or Chinese investors joining the investment or the investment being scrapped.
A successful port project at Anaklia is envisaged as picking up a major volume of business flowing from China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to boost flows of Chinese exports to Europe with the utilisation of new modern infrastructure.
Georgia’s Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure was quoted by InterPressNews.ge as saying in a press release that any exit by an ADC consortium member must receive the prior endorsement of the government—and no such step had been reported as yet. But Conti had not been involved in the consortium management since last December and was not involved in recent negotiations, the ministry reportedly acknowledged .
50 GEORGIA Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com