BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 30
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Anaklia Development Consortium has offered three proposals to the Georgian government, Trend reports via Georgian media outlets.
If the proposals are accepted, the consortium will take on the responsibility to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, the director of Anaklia Development Consortium Levan Akhvlediani said.
One of the offers is creating a guarantee of loan repayment for international banks.
The option offered to the government involves creating an additional fund as a guarantee of loan repayment for international banks which involves $50 million from investors, $50 million from the EU and $50 million from the Georgian government.
Another proposal is that the government should not compete with Anaklia Port by investing in another deep-sea port until the Anaklia Port building phase is ready by 70 percent.
"The government should support interested investors and welcome their participation in the project," said Akhvlediani.
Akhvlediani has suggested an alternative for international financial institutions: to provide $400 million in loans and private investors should put forward their own capital of $120 million, in this case the state should bring only $100 million in subordinated loans for the project.
Meanwhile, the Meridian Capital NL B.V investment firm has said that it is unable to participate in the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project at this stage.
On October 26, Conti International, a member of the Conti Group and the founding partner in the Anaklia Development Consortium, confirmed that it has “reached an agreement to sell its position in the Anaklia Port Project and exit the Consortium”.
The Georgian government has previously allowed the Anaklia Development Consortium to try to come up with the needed capital for the project by the end of 2019. The government has postponed the consortium’s deadline for obtaining the funding six times since 2017.
Construction of Anaklia Deep Sea Port started in 2017, with the opening of the port and the receiving of ships in Anaklia planned for 2021.
The latest timeline presented by the consortium says that the construction of the port will be completed in June of 2022 instead of 2020.
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