Tag Archives: IFI

Georgia bottled water company builds new factory

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Healthy Water, the Georgian-Swiss company that produces the Nabeghavi brand of mineral water, will build a new factory in the western Guria region to expand its product line and increase its share of Georgia’s valuable bottled water market.

The new €30m ($32m) plant will open in 2016 near Batumi in western Georgia and add six bottling lines to the company’s production chain.

Healthy Water also plans to start producing lemonade, fruit juices and iced-tea. Funding for the new factory comes from a number of backers, including the EBRD.

As well as producing the upmarket Nabeghlavi brand, with its iconic green glass bottles and branding, Healthy Water also produces bottled water under the Bakhmaro brand. In 2014, it was the second-largest bottled water company in Georgia behind Borjomi, the most famous Georgian bottled water company.

Borjomi, with its slightly salty taste, dominates the Georgian bottled water market with 41% of the market.

Healthy Water has a 36% market share, split between its brands.

Healthy Water’s real aimmaybe the lucrative export market. It already exports its Nabeghlavi and Bakhmaro brands to North America, eight European Union countries, China, Russia and Turkey.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Eurasian Dev Bank to give Armenia $300m crisis loan

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank is close to agreeing a deal to lend the Armenian government $300m to help it through the economic malaise enveloping the Central Asia and South Caucasus region.

If it is agreed, the first $100m is due at the end of this year with the outstanding $200m handed over by the end of 2017.

Like other countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Armenia has been trying to deal with the fallout of the drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia which have combined to tip the entire region into an economic depression.

“Current macroeconomic actions have been agreed with the Armenian government,” Dmitry Pankin, the EDB CEO, told the Armenpress news agency.

“The project has been approved by the expert council and is now being considered by the Eurasian Stabilisation and Development Fund. After the official decision, the final conditions will be agreed upon.”

The Eurasian Development Bank is an overtly political organisation. It’s membership mirrors the membership of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union — Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia — with the addition of Tajikistan.

It was set up before the Eurasian Economic Union to give the trade bloc extra weight.

It also acts as a kind of sweetener. Armenia is reliant on Russia for economic and political support. It joined the Eurasian Economic Union at the start of this year under duress from Russia but can now access cheap loans to keep its economy running.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

EBRD supports Turkmen SME

OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A joint European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and EU project will make 2.5m euros available to small and medium sized enterprises in Turkmenistan. The project will run for three years and give Turkmen SMEs access to business advisers as well as funds.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

Auchan starts supplying food to Tajik capital store

DUSHANBE, SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — French retail group Auchan said it will supply its new hypermarket in Tajikistan with Russian-produced goods from November after a successful test-run.

The Russian branch of Auchan had earlier signed an agreement with Schiever Group to open a 5,000 square metres store in Dushanbe.

From a warehouse in Novosibirsk, Russia will supply around 80% of the products for sale in Tajikistan’s new store, the company said.

The project, conceived in 2014, was co-financed through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which allocated $5m for the construction of Tajikistan’s first hypermarket. Through the deal, EBRD has become a stakeholder in Schiever Tajikistan.

Tajikistan is the third post-Soviet country, after Russia and Ukraine, to host an Auchan hypermarket. It also plans one in Armenia. Reliant on workers’ remittances, Tajikistan needs more foreign investment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

ADB boosts Kazakh SMEs

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Damu, a state-owned fund that helps SMEs in Kazakhstan, said it is negotiating on behalf of local businesses for a better interest rate on loans from the Asian Development Bank. The ADB has made $500m worth of loans available to SMEs in Kazakhstan since 2010. The Damu fund wants a $228m tranche made available to SMEs with an interest rate of 14% or below.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

EBRD to loan for buses in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering a $65m loan to Astana LRT to buy 200 modern buses, media reported. Astana, the Kazakh capital, has been growing , putting major pressure on its public transport systems.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Salini Impregilo wins $575m Georgia hydropower project

AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Korean Water Resource Corporation (K-Water) awarded Italian engineering group Salini Impregilo a contract worth $575m to build the Nenskra hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in the Svaneti region of northwest Georgia.

K-Water, in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and the Korean Exim Bank, are developing the 280MW project which will have an overall cost of around $1b.

Salini Impregilo has already worked in Georgia on various projects, including the construction of a new motorway.

“The work will have to be completed in 62 months from the signing of the contract,” Salini Impregilo said in a statement.

“The Project will be composed of a main dam, a weir on the Nakra river, a transfer tunnel, a headrace tunnel to the powerhouse and the actual open-air powerhouse with four vertical-axis Pelton turbines.”

The Nenskra HPP project has been talked of for a few years. The Chinese Sinohydro had been selected to develop a 210MW project in 2012, only to withdraw later. Both the cost and the capacity of the HPP have been increased since 2012.

Irakli Kovzanadze, CEO of Partnership Fund, which controls stakes in major Georgian infrastructure projects for the state, underlined the importance of the project for Georgia.

“This hydropower plant will be the largest one in Georgia since the country’s independence,” Georgian media quoted him as saying.

Georgia produces three-quarters of its electricity from hydroelectric plants, although it still imports more than it produces.

One of the key strategic aims of the Nenskra HPP is to help Georgia reduce its energy dependence on Russia, which supplies it with most of its gas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

ADB approves loan for Georgian coast

AUG. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $20m loan to boost coastal defences along the Black Sea. The loan will be used to strengthen 5km of shore south of Batumi. The ADB said it was important to defend the shoreline to protect farmland and housing as well as the region’s beaches which attract thousands of tourists each year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Armenia receives $300m loan

JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will loan $300m to Armenia to weather tough economic conditions, media reported quoting Russia’s deputy economy minister Sergei Storchak. The ADB was set up by Russia and Kazakhstan. It supports members of the Eurasian Economic Union.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

World Bank approves loans to Uzbekistan

JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank approved a $305m loan to Uzbekistan to update and modernise its motorway network and a second loan of $105m to improve the irrigation network in the Bukhara region, media reported. Human rights groups have criticises the world Bank for the loans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)