Tag Archives: business

Turkmenistan increases electricity production

FEB. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has increased its electricity production by 7.4% so far this year compared to the same period in 2016, media reported quoting government officials. This is important because Turkmenistan sees electricity as a second major export after gas and has been investing heavily in infrastructure. It has also said that it wants to export electricity along a route built adjacent to the TAPI pipeline that will pump gas to Pakistan and India. This will rival the World Bank-backed CASA-1000 electricity power line being built from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Georgia Healthcare posts strong 2016 results

TBILISI, FEB. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its full year results, London-listed Georgia Healthcare said that revenue had risen by 75% and that the company was well- placed for more growth in 2017 and 2018.

The Tbilisi-based company, which is part-owned by Bank of Georgia, did say that results at its insurance business were worse than expected but this didn’t dampen investor enthusiasm for one of the Central Asia/South Caucasus region’s best- performing stocks.

The day after the results, Georgia Healthcare’s share price was up 6.3% at 379p (see Markets on page 12 for more information on Georgia Healthcare’s stock price).

Nikoloz Gamkrelidze, the Georgia Healthcare CEO, said in a statement that a combination of organic growth and acquisitions in the pharmacy and medicines distribution sectors had helped push up revenues to 426.4m lari ($161.5m) and to more than double net profit to 61.3m lari ($23.2m).

“The Group delivered a strong performance in 2016, and remains in good shape to benefit over the next few years from the combination of its position as the largest healthcare services provider, pharmaceuticals wholesaler and retailer and medical insurer in what continues to be a fast-growing, predominantly privately-owned, Georgian healthcare services market,” he said.

Georgia Healthcare listed on the London stock exchange in November 2015 for 170p. It is the largest private healthcare company in Georgia and now operates 13 regional clinics and 28 so-called express clinics. Acquisitions in 2016 in the competitive pharmacy sector has now given is a 29% share of this market.

The one blight on its 2016 results was in the insurance sector which lost 4.9m lari ($1.85m). Mr Gamkrelidze blamed a loss on one contract.

“Our medical insurance business had a more challenging year, particularly reflecting the loss- making impact of one large corporate insurance contract,” he said. “This contract has now expired and has not been renewed.”

Mr Gamkrelidze predicted that the Georgia Healthcare insurance unit will break even in 2017. It has a 35% share of Georgia’s medical insurance market.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Azerbaijan budget airline to fly to Moscow

FEB. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — AZALJet the budget airline belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines, known as AZAL, will start flying to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport from Ganja and Gabala, two Azerbaijani regional towns, media reported, a move that may be aimed at migrant workers as much as businessmen or tourists. AZALjet was founded in March 2016 and links Baku mainly to capitals of former Soviet states but also to many of Turkey’s biggest cities.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Oil output in Kazakhstan beats forecast

FEB. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kanat Bozumbayev, the Kazakh energy minister, told media that in 2016 Kazakhstan produced 78m tonnes of oil, beating an initial forecast of 75.5m tonnes. This is important because the government had been forecasting a drop in production because companies were throttling back output under the pressure of poor prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Iran considers setting up bank in Azerbaijan

FEB. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli is considering spinning off its branches in Azerbaijan into an independent bank, Valiollah Seif, the Iranian Central Bank chief, told the Trend news agency.

If a new Iran-owned bank does emerge in Azerbaijan, it will mark a major watershed in relations between the two countries. These relations have improved markedly over the past couple of years, since Hassan Rouhani became Iran’s president in 2013. Under Mr Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, war had at times appeared likely.

In the interview, Mr Seif also said that he had held talks with this counterparts in Azerbaijan to set up a joint bank run by the two neighbours.

Azerbaijan’s banking sector has been roiled by an economic down- turn linked to a collapse in oil prices and it is likely that any move by Iran to set up a fully-owned bank in Azerbaijan will be driven by politics as much as by economics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Kazakh oil project to double oil output

FEB. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kashagan oil project in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea will double oil production to 370,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of 2017, the North Caspian Operating Company consortium developing the project said in a statement. Kashagan is the Great White Hope of Kazakhstan’s oil industry. It started commercial production at the end of last year, three years behind schedule because pipes running from the mainland to the field were found to be leaky and needed to be repaired.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)f

Azerbaijan orders new locomotives

FEB. 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has ordered 50 locomotives from French rail manufacturer Alstom for 276m euros, media reported quoting an Azerbaijani railways spokesperson. The loan for the locomotives was supplied by a consortium of French and British banks. The new locomotives will run along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that will be completed later this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Georgia signs new deal with Bitfury to develop property register

TBILISI, FEB. 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia agreed to forge ahead with a plan to develop a property register using technology that supports the bitcoin virtual currency.

The deal is a gamble for Georgia, which wants to promote itself as a forward-looking and technologically savvy country as bitcoin has been largely discredited, partly because of its association with illegal activities.

The deal that Georgia has struck is an extension of a deal it entered into last year with Bitfury, which engineers the blockchain system used to trade bitcoins.

Although best-known for its association with bitcoin, Bitfury has engineered different uses for its blockchain system which effectively allows people to convert an asset into a certificate that can be traded digitally. The blockchain system takes its name from the technique of recording transactions across multiple computers, forming a chain that would be broken by any attempted fraud.

Papuna Ugrekhelidze, the chairman of the Georgian National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR), said that this was the first time that a national government had signed a deal to use Bitfury’s technology.

“The NAPR will use the world’s latest technology [to] guarantee safe transactions, transparency and flexibility. The process is electronic, in which human agents will not interfere, ensuring its security,” media quoted him as saying.

The deal represents a massive overhaul of Georgia’s property registration system and Mr Ugrekhelidze said that using Bitfury’s technology would reduce the cost of updating the register by 95%.

He didn’t give away any of the specifics of the contract that Bitfury has signed with Georgia.

This is the culmination of a process that started in April last year when Bitfury and Georgia began a trial process. Previously, in 2015, Bitfury said it would invest $100m into a technology park in Tbilisi. It also operates a data centre in Gori, 70km from Tbilisi.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Oil price drop hits Kazakh export value hard

FEB. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The value of Kazakhstan’s exports fell by 20% in 2016, the Central Bank said, reflecting just how heavily the drop in oil prices has hit the country. It said that exports dropped to $37.2b. In 2016, the average price of a barrel of Brent oil was $42.80. In 2015 it had been $50.80. This year, oil prices have hovered around $55/barrel.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Uzbekistan wants to process all its raw cotton

FEB. 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan wants to process 100% of its raw cotton harvest by 2020, the fibre2fashion.com website reported, signifying a potential step-change in its cotton export strategy.

The fibre2fashion website said that Uzbekistan currently processed only 40% of its cotton harvest and that it would need an investment of

$2.2b to build the processing facilities needed to hit this target. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest commodities but it has been stigmatised by its association with child labour. Many Western brands have refused to buy clothing that contains Uzbek cotton.

Over the past few years, though, the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said the Uzbek authorities have reduced their reliance on child labour.

And constructing cotton processing plants would also create much needed jobs and help push rural Uzbekistan from a predominantly agrarian society towards a more industrialised one.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)