One-week deadline set by owner Kibar Khalvashi to sell Rustavi 2 expired
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Tuesday, August 20
The one-week deadline set by the owner of Rustavi 2, Kibar Khalvashi, to sell the company through a “transparent competition” expired yesterday.
In the past week, several potential buyers of the channel were named by different media outlets, including businessmen Vano Chkhartishvili and Davit Iakobashvili, both of them owning a business in Russia. But it is still unknown if anyone is willing to buy the company.
As the director of Rustavi 2, Paata Salia said in his interview on August 15, further decisions will be made after the one-week deadline is expired. Salia also noted that he does not think that the time to sell the company will be extended, “because important decisions are needed to be made to prepare for the new season.”
“If anyone was interested in buying Rustavi 2, the public would have been informed about it, because the buyers had to make a public statement about their desire to buy the company,” stressed Salia.
According to him, if there won’t be any potential buyers before the deadline, Khalvashi will have to first seek his funds, and then he will need the help of financial institutions.
“Talking about bankruptcy is an exaggeration. No such thing is planned, but specific measures are being calculated, which will help the company to pay off its debt,” noted Salia.
After less than a month of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, as a result of which Khalvashi becoming 100% shareholder of Rustavi 2, he decided to sell the company to someone willing to pay the most.
Many have said that this decision was made following the wishes of Georgian Government, experts said that if Khalvashi wanted to sell the channel, he would make it more attractive to potential buyers.
“I decided to sell Rustavi 2 through a transparent competition to someone who will pay the highest price. Given that the company is facing a severe financial crisis, the competition must be completed within a week,” said Khalvashi in his statement, stressing that he was ready to talk with anyone except Mikheil Saakashvili.
As he noted, he made this decision because his finances “are not enough to help the channel.” According to Kibar Khalvashi, there are all legal grounds for starting a company insolvency case. As he said, the debt of the channel is approaching 70 million GEL, out of which 27 million is a budgetary tax.
In the parallel of selling the channel, the founders of the company, Davit Dvali, and Jarji Akimidze are demanding shares of the channel, while Ia Kitsmarishvili, wife of one of the founders of Rustavi 2, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, is also suing for 30% of the company.
