The Georgian Minister of Infrastructure Maia Tskitishvili said that if the Anaklia Development Consortium fails to finalise agreements with potential investors and financial institutions to present $520 million in total investments, the government may cancel its investment agreement with the consortium. The deadline for the consortium to submit its plans expired on 15 October, but the Georgian government decided to extend the expiration date to the end of 2019. This means that the consortium will have until the end of December 2019 to find $400 million in loans from international financial institutions and to put forward its own capital of $120 million.
“Considering that the Anaklia Development Consortium has failed to fulfil its obligation to obtain finances and submit prior agreement with banks and given that this project is important to us, we will not allow any opponent, including the Consortium or the political opposition, to accuse the government of conducting activities that would hinder the Anaklia Development Consortium from implementing this project. We will not cancel and we will give the Consortium the chance to fully use its resources by the end of 2019 and raise funds both from local sources and international banks,” said Tskitishvili.
The General Director of the consortium Levan Akhvlediani said that the consortium had presented its plan and called on the government to hold negotiations. According to him If the government terminated the agreement with the consortium, not a single respectable investor or an international financial institute would participate in the project. “The project will be suspended for a long time. Therefore, we hope that the government will take reasonable measures,” he said.
According to nformation from the Georgian government, the Consortium has only formally introduced two investors to the Georgian government so far, while holding talks with other potential investors. One of them is a Kazakh-Hong Kong-based company Meridian Capital Limited and another one the Dutch company “Vanord”. In the case of "Vanord", the term expires on 21 October, and in the case of "Meridian Capital" on 29 October.
EU ambassador to Georgia, Carl Hartzell also voiced his concerns over the potential failure of the project. “Anaklia Port is a very important infrastructure project. Although there is a certain disagreement among the partners, its implementation is important. We hear positive attitude and readiness for implementation of the project from all sides, therefore I think that the importance of Anaklia Port Project is obvious for everyone,” he said.
The Anaklia Deep Sea Port is the biggest infrastructure project in Georgia. The Anaklia Development Consortium won the state tender to construct the port and signed a deal with the government in 2016 with TBC Holding as its principal partner. Since then, it has faced problems in attracting the $2.5 billion in needed funds. The most recent blow to the project was on 15 August, when the US-based construction and development company, Conti Group, announced that it was leaving the consortium (Caucasus Watch reported).
