PM Nika Gilauri said on November 17, that the government had decided to delay launch of initial public offering (IPO) for some of the major state-owned enterprises because of “grave situation on the international stock markets.”
 
“We were planning to float minority of stakes on the international stock markets this year, but because of grave situation on international stock markets, we will not do it this year,” PM Gilauri said at a government session on November 18.

In October Parliament approved a legislative amendment allowing the government to float stakes of state-owned enterprises on international stock markets.

Minority stakes of the Georgian Railway; Georgian State Electric System, which is in charge of power transmission throughout the country; Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation (GOGC), the company which also operates the North-South Gas Pipeline, transporting gas from Russia to Armenia via Georgia; as well as electricity distributor in capital Tbilisi, Telasi, in which the state owns 24.53% are considered for IPO. The government claims that it has no plans to sell the controlling stakes of these enterprises. 

Speaking at the government’s session on November 18, PM Gilauri also said that while “financial markets are on the verge of collapse” and “there is a serious economic crisis” in a part of Europe, preliminary figures of Georgia’s economic growth for the first 10 months of 2011 “are quite positive” and amount to about 6.5%.