Page 17 - bne_newspaper_May_31_2019

Eurasia
May 31, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Georgia’s Anaklia deep- water port investment hits potentially terminal trouble as officials
back rival
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest and Will Conroy in Prague
Georgia’s flagship infrastructure investment, the $2.5bn Anaklia deep-water port project, is “on the verge of stopping”, Mamuka Khazaradze, one of the two principal partners in the consortium behind the project and a co-founder of the country’s TBC Bank that has lately faced a probe mounted by prosecutors, warned on May 30.
With the fates of Anaklia port and FTSE-250-listed TBC having become entwined, it is high time to lay out the facts so far. Make of them what you will.
Khazaradze released a statement on Facebook from the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), backed by Georgian and US investors among others. It cautioned that the future of its project was in trouble because, in a “shocking” move, Georgia’s ministry of economy and sustainable development is to issue a permit for the construction of a rival deep-water port in Poti,
a location a little further south than Anaklia
on the country’s Black Sea coast.
As this year got under way, news broke that TBC Bank was being investigated for alleged “illegal income” activities dating back 11 years. The Office of the Prosecutor General (POG) of Georgia announced its investigation, prompting Khazaradze’s lawyer Zviad Kordzadze to state: “The rumors about money laundering are nonsense. The operation [subject to the probe] was absolutely open and transparent.”
Map showing distance between Anaklia port and Tbilisi. Poti can be seen slightly south of Anaklia.
Suggested links to Ivanishvili
The move against TBC prompted some opposition politicians to speculate that it might be linked
to Bidzina Ivanishvili – Georgia’s richest person who is a former prime minister of the country and the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Many observers describe the entrepreneur- politician as Georgia’s de facto leader.
Local news outlets including JAM and BPN looked at how Georgian-Russian dual national Ivanishvili appeared to be displeased by Khazaradze developing Anaklia deep-water port – seen as Georgia’s most important project – with the support of another former PM, Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Gigi Ugulava, one of the leaders of the parliamentary minority party European Georgia, meanwhile,
was quoted by Georgia Today as saying: “[The co- founders of TBC Bank Group including] Khazaradze were trying to get on well with Ivanishvili before
but it did not work out... We see business cannot breathe freely.”
However, Georgian Dream MP and vice speaker of parliament Gia Volsky told the publication that he rejected the idea that political motives featured
in the TBC case. “It is impossible to blame such
a huge financial institution [for such activities] so groundlessly,” he said.
Read the full story here