Tag Archives: society

Georgia Healthcare Group sets price range for London IPO

OCT. 25 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia Healthcare Group set a price range for shares at its IPO in London later this year of between 215p and 315p, an IPO that will give investors a rare chance to buy into the South Caucasus region.

This share price range gives Georgia Healthcare Group, the largest healthcare provider in Georgia, a value of between £257m – £347m ($400m – $535m).

Georgia Healthcare Group wants to raise $100m in the IPO to give two hospitals it owns in Tbilisi a makeover.

With economic conditions across the region slowing, various planned IPOs for companies from Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been cancelled or postponed.

Georgia Healthcare Group owns 42 hospitals in Georgia, giving it a 27% share of the hospital beds in the country. It used to be part of Bank of Georgia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Tajiistan rations electricity

OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s state-owned utility Barqi Tojik said it imposed seasonal rationing of electricity on rural areas on Oct. 18. Tajikistan wants to become a regional exporter of electricity but issues with its own power grid and growing consumption have curbed its ambitions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgians protest against Gazprom

OCT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Tbilisi against a potential deal with Gazprom to supply gas to Georgia. The demonstration was a response to a meeting last month between the Georgian government and Gazprom. Georgia and Russia fought a war in 2008 and relations are still strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Kyrgyz prisoners escape

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police captured a group of criminals who escaped last week from a prison outside Bishkek. Five of the nine fugitives died, two in clashes with the police and three in custody. Families and human rights groups have asked for an investigation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Security colonel steals artwork in Uzbekistan

OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A former colonel in the Uzbek security services stole 32 pieces of art from the state museum in Tashkent, media reported. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has previously accused members of the security services of stealing artwork. She has been under house arrest since March last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgia’s court acquits 4 of anti-gay attack

OCT. 23 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi acquitted four men of organising a violent attack on a gay rights march in 2013 that injured 28 people, pitting Georgia’s pro-rights lobby against a strong traditionalist group.

The four men, including one priest who was photographed carrying a wooden stool at the 2013 march apparently as a weapon, were accused of being the ringleaders behind the homophobic attack in central Tbilisi.

Human rights groups have accused Georgia of homophobia in the past but traditional values hold sway – the Church is still very powerful and has spoken out strongly against gay rights, – and the court’s verdict will have resonated with many people.

One user on the kavpolit.com website said: “Gay parades are not for the Caucasus. Well done to the priests and the judges. Let them go to Western Europe.”

In 2014, a poll in Georgia found that only 24% of people thought that protecting gay rights was important.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Tajik baby dies in Russia

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian authorities declined to take responsibility for the death of Umarali Nazarov, a five-month old Tajik boy who died in police custody in St. Petersburg nine days earlier. Nazarov had been separated from his parents who were also detained. Tajikistan has lodged an official complaint about Nazarov’s death.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Turkmen President presents 2016 budget

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov confirmed that the government will increase by 10% all salaries for state employees from next year.

In an official announcement in the state’s Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper, Mr Berdymukhamedov presented his budget for 2016.

“The State budget was drafted with consideration of the Decree on the President of Turkmenistan on a 10% increase in wages, pensions, state benefits and scholarships on January 1, 2016,” Neutral Turkmenistan reported.

Turkmenistan devalued its manat currency by 20% on Jan. 1 this year, hitting people’s real wages. Earlier this year Mr Berdymukhamedov said that he would go some way towards compensating people by raising government salaries but there had previously been no official confirmation of how or when this would happen.

And in a budget clearly designed to ward off a drop in economic growth linked to low energy prices, Mr Berdymukhamedov said he would fund the salary rise by selling off some state assets.

“The revenues of the State budget are to be replenished through the privatisation of state-run objects and enterprises and dwelling houses from the state housing stock and the distribution of the bonds of the state fund,” Neutral Turkmenistan said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Economic crisis worse than 2008/9, says Kazakh President

OCT. 19 2015, ASTANA (The Conway Bulletin) — In a rare candid assessment of the economic storm battering Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the outlook for Kazakhstan’s economy was now worse than it had been during the 2007-9 Global Financial Crisis.

Mr Nazarbayev’s comments, made during a meeting with Kazakh PM Karim Massimov and published on the Presidential website, were the most candid so far by one of the region’s leaders.

And any comparison with the dark days of 2007-9, when the economies of Kazakhstan and its neighbours reversed nearly a decade of sharp growth, will hit a nerve.

“Our people must know the current situation, profits at businesses are dropping, income is falling and there is the possibility of job losses,” he said.

“This is a real crisis — more powerful than in 2007-2009.”

In 2006, according to World Bank data, Kazakhstan had been powering along and enjoying GDP growth of over 10%.

This dipped to 9% in 2007 before falling in 2008 to around 3% and in 2009 to just over 1%.

Consumers and mortgage holders defaulted on debt repayments in 2008-9 and Kazakhstan’s government had to buy up bankrupt banks. Although the Kazakh economy has recovered, the experience left deep financial and psychological scars.

And the crash this time has been just as sudden as the 2007-9 Global Financial Crisis.

In 2007-9, sub-prime mortgages in the US started the rout. This time, a sudden fall in oil and commodity prices and a loss of confidence in Emerging Markets, including in China, have been the triggers.

Currencies across Central Asia and the South Caucasus have fallen by around 40%, inflation is rising and trade volumes falling.

Kazakhstan has built up cash reserves from oil and gas sales but Mr Nazarbayev said that, although social programmes would be supported, businesses would not be bailed out.

“Companies should not expect the State to give them the means to survive. This will not happen,” he said.

Other leaders across Central Asia and the South Caucasus may not have been as forthright as Mr Nazarbayev on the economic outlook but they are facing the same stormy conditions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Kazakh labour figures down

OCT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Over 11,000 people lost their jobs in Kazakhstan in the first nine months of the year, the ministry of social development said. The ministry monitors only a sample of private businesses, so the total numbers could be larger, according to Radio Free Europe. A chart produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit showed that the overall size of the Kazakh labour force is shrinking.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)