Anaklia Development Consortium makes three demands from Georgian gov’t to build Anaklia Deep Sea Port

Anaklia Development Consortium has made three demands for the Georgian government; if fulfilled, the consortium will take on the responsibility to successfully build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, announced the director of Anaklia Development Consortium Levan Akhvlediani today at parliament.

These demands are:

• 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 EU and $50 million from the Georgian government.

• Government should not compete with Anaklia Port by investing in another deep-sea port until the Anaklia Port building phase reaches 70% utilization.
• The government should support interested investors and welcome their participation in the project.

It is commercially illogical for the government to fully take all the risks and invest $600 million in the project…. The state does not have enough resources to invest in such a huge project, which is why private investors need to be involved," said Levan Akhvlediani.

The latest timeline presented by the consortium says that the construction of the port will be completed in June of 2022 instead of 2020. Photo: Anaklia Port.

Levan Akhvlediani suggests an alternative for international financial institutions should fund $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.

In this case a great risk will be taken by a private investor,” said Akhvlediani.

Meridian Capital Limited investment firm said that it is unable to participate in the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project at this stage, announced the Ministry of Infrastructure yesterday.

The Anaklia Development Consortium proposed Meridian Capital Limited to the Georgian government as a new investor to replace American Conti International after its decision to leave the consortium, which it announced on August 15. 

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 allows 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.

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, but has faced problems in attracting the $2.5 billion in funds needed to construct the port. 

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, announced the Ministry of Infrastructure on July 30.