Page 44 - bneMag Dec22

44 I Special Report bne December 2022
INTERVIEW
Giorgi Paresishvili, chairman of Tashkent Stock Exchange
Ben Aris in Samarakand
When I first interviewed Giorgi Paresishvili eight years ago he had just been appointed the CEO of the Georgian Stock Exchange (GSE) as well as chairman of the supervisory board of the central securities depository (CSD) and had been tasked with modernising the domestic capital market.
He was highly successful. In January 2016 Paresishvili successfully plugged Georgia into the international capital markets when it hooked up to the international settlement and clearing system of Clearstream via its largest bank, the Bank of Georgia.
Already regarded as the most progressive country in the Caucasus, joining Clearstream widened Georgia’s lead over its Former Soviet Union (FSU) peers further as international investors could overnight buy stocks and bonds on the local exchange directly from their trading desks in London and
New York. The reform opened access
to a new pool of capital of hundreds of millions of dollars and transformed the market.
Paresishvili drove through a reform programme to create an international standard capital market that its companies and banks can tap to raise capital, as well as provide investment opportunities for things like domestic pension funds.
Now Paresishvili hopes to do the same thing for Uzbekistan.
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“The Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan approached me in Spring of 2022 and offered me this job,” Paresishvili, now CEO of the Tashkent Exchange, told bne IntelliNews in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Uzbek Economic Forum in Samarkand at the start of November. “They wanted me to help them develop the Uzbek capital market and open it up to foreign portfolio investors.
“The Ministry of Finance was looking for someone with experience in both international and regional capital markets, and for someone who at
the same time spoke Russian,” said Paresishvili, who has also worked in New York and London at international investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and at Bank of Georgia and Bank Republic (part of Societe Generale Group back then) in his native Georgia.
Clearstream revolution
Paresishvili was hired to run the Tashkent Stock Exchange (TSE) in September this year and the first thing he did was fly to the Clearstream headquarters in Luxembourg to invite the company to start operations with the Uzbek capital markets.
“I think they also liked the fact that
we set up a link with Clearstream in Georgia, effectively opening up local securities market to foreign investors. After Georgia other regional markets – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Serbia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were
linked with Clearstream and we hope
it can be done in Uzbekistan as well” Hooking up Georgia to the international financial system brought in new foreign money, which at its peak equalled 10% of the outstanding bonds. A third (34%) of Russian OFZ local treasury bills were owned by foreigners at its peak about two years ago, but that percentage has fallen to 17% now. From start to finish it took Paresishvili three years to connect the GSE to Clearstream.
The work has already begun, but Paresishvili says it will take at least
a year to complete, as the IT system has to be revamped and laws changed to introduce things like nominee accounts.
The government is actively anticipating the change that revolutionised the Russian capital market in 2014 and
in Ukraine when it joined in 2019,
Giorgi Paresishvili,
The former head of the Georgian stock exchange