Legislative Amendment to Allow IPO of State Enterprises
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 10 Aug.'11 / 17:06

The government has proposed legislative amendments to pave way for floating a minority stake of several major state-owned enterprises on London and Warsaw stock exchanges, PM NIka Gilauri said on August 10.

Speaking at a government session, PM Gilauri said that the new legislative amendment would allow initial public offering of 15-25% of stakes in such state-owned enterprises like the Georgian Railway and Georgian State Electric System, which is in charge of power transmission throughout the country.

"It will allow us to attract additional investments," PM Gilauri said.

He also said that although "the situation on the international stock exchanges is not favorable right now, but confidence towards Georgia has not reduced, on the contrary it is increased."

The senior government officials, including PM Gilauri, have said previously for number of times that they were considering IPO of about 25% of the state-owned Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation (GOGC), the company which also operates the North-South Gas Pipeline, transporting gas from Russia to Armenia via Georgia.

The government also said in February that it was considering IPO of its minority stakes in Russian-controlled electricity distribution company in Tbilisi.

75% of Telasi, the electricity distributor in the capital city, is owned by the Netherlands-registered Silk Road Holdings B.V., which is wholly owned by Russia’s state-controlled power trader, Inter RAO; 24.53% of Telasi stakes is owned by the Georgian state.

 

Civil.Ge © 2001-2024