Borjomi mineral water company offers to transfer shares to Gov't

IDS Borjomi, the Georgian company producing and exporting the Borjomi mineral water, announced today it had submitted a formal proposal to transfer a part of its shares to the Government of Georgia for free. 

The company said that the move would enable the Government to participate in the management of the company following “interruptions” to its business since the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in February.

Due to the recent negative developments in the region, IDS Borjomi International has been experiencing interruption of business and difficulties with banking services as a result of which it shut down its production factories in Borjomi, Georgia with over a thousand of its employees facing the risk of unemployment," the company said.

One of the largest mineral water producers in Georgia, the company announced in April about the suspension of production at both of its plants in Georgia, as the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russian-owned businesses created "difficulties" for the producer in dealing with its major markets.

• Borjomi mineral water company suspends production after Ukraine war, sanctions create "difficulties"

IDS Borjomi is partly owned by Alfa Group, one of the largest privately owned financial investment conglomerates in Russia, with 60 percent of the mineral water company's shares owned by the conglomerate since 2013.

The founder of Alfa Group is Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who has been listed by a number of countries among the sanctioned oligarchs since the start of hostilities in Ukraine.