Tag Archives: pharmaceuticals

Uzbekistan opens Ammonia plant

JAN. 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek pharmaceuticals company Uzkimyosanoat opened a new $985m ammonia plant whose output is expected to meet growing domestic demand for fertilisers. Media said that the plant, which has been described as “world class” and is one of the biggest industrial plants in the country, will boost Uzbek production of ammonia, the key ingredient in fertiliser, by nearly 10%. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has promised to invest in infrastructure.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Russia-Azerbaijan pharmaceutical JV nears completion

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NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — A Russia-Azerbaijan joint-venture to build a pharmaceutical plant on the edge of Baku is nearing completion, media reported by quoting Azerbaijan’s deputy PM Shahin Mustafayev. The 80m euro plant has been more than a year in the making. Plans for the plant, called Hayat Pharm, show that it is expected to produce 89 different medicines, many for export.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.

Stock market: KAZ Minerals, Georgia Healthcare

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JULY 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — In a rocky fortnight for stocks in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, only KAZ Minerals and Georgia Healthcare bucked the trend and returned growth. Both have had stellar years and are hitting all-time highs.

For KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan-focused copper producer formerly called Kazakhmys, production costs at its sites in north Kazakhstan have been lower than previously expected giving it greater margins. Copper prices have been fairly stable, trading in the $250 – $270 per lb corridor this year after a jump at the end of 2016.

For Georgia Healthcare, analysts have simply underestimated the profitability of the product that it was offering. This profitability may have been a motivating factor for London-listed BGEO Group, which owns a 57% stake in Georgia Healthcare, to tell investors that it was going to split into two companies. BGEO Group plans to hold the Georgia Healthcare stake, along with other assets, but it will spin off Bank of Georgia into its own London-listed company.

On the downside Nostrum was the biggest faller, shedding more than 15% of its price. It is now trading at below 430p for the first time since the end of March.

On Toronto’s stock exchange, Centerra Gold was down 6.3% to C$6.63, its lowest since the March.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Georgia’s BGEO to spin off non- banking investments

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TBILISI, JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — BGEO, the London-listed Georgian investment company that owns most of Bank of Georgia and Georgia Healthcare Group, said it will split into two companies later this year in a move that surprised analysts but sent its share price up towards an all-time high.

The de-merger will give investors more opportunity to increase their exposure to Georgia with a new company focused on retail, healthcare, drinks and utilities.

Both Bank of Georgia and Georgia Healthcare have had strong years and have become two of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region’s favourite shares.

In a statement, BGEO said it would split into two London-listed companies — Bank of Georgia and BGEO Investments. BGEO will own a 10% stake in the bank; a 57% stake in Georgian Healthcare; M2, a real estate company; Aldagi, an insurance company; GGU, a utilities company; a 72% stake in Taliani Valley, a drinks company.

“The Board of BGEO Group believes a de-merger of the businesses will deliver additional long-term value to shareholders by creating two distinct entities, each of which will have enhanced growth opportunities

in the strongly growing Georgian economy,” the BGEO statement said. The news sent BGEO’s shares up and over the next couple of days they hit a peak of 3,721p, near a high of 3,744p in March. Shares in Georgia Healthcare were steady at 370p.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Stock market: Georgia Healthcare, KAZ minerals

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — It was a poor week for stocks in companies linked to Central Asia and the South Caucasus. All stocks were either stagnant or fell, with the notably exception of Georgia Healthcare, which is perhaps the standout performer of the year.

By the end of the week, Georgia Healthcare stock had risen by 12% to 394.5p, smashing past its previous all-time high of 373p hit in February.

As for the fallers, the heaviest tumbles were taken by KAZ Minerals and Centerra Gold. KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan focused copper producer, fell 11.4% to 471.5p. This, although it looks bad, was merely a correction to return to trading at a level it has been anchored around for the past month.

Centerra Gold’s shares are volatile. The Canada-based miner whose main asset is the Kumtor gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan is locked in a near permanent dogfight with the Kyrgyz government for control of its asset. This week, though, traders said that short-selling had knocked the value of its shares. It finished the week at C$6.72, a fall of over 8%, and its lowest level since the start of March.

Other notably fallers include Nostrum Oil & Gas, which lost around 4.7% of its stock price, more than the fall in oil, and TBC Bank, a Georgian bank, which also shed around 5% of its value, possibly because inflation data remained stubbornly high.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kazakh minister looks for healthcare gain

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MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s health minister Yelzhan Birtanov said that he intended to boost state spending in the private healthcare sector to try and attract more investors. He also said that, ultimately, he’d like to see Kazakhstan become a hub for health tourism in the region. Healthcare has become a major business in the former Soviet Union as governments turn to the private sector to improve their Soviet-era systems.

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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)

Georgia Healthcare boosts profit

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TBILISI, MAY 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia Healthcare Group reported a surge in revenue linked to its new pharmaceuticals business, underlining its position as one of the Central Asia/South Caucasus region’s best-performing stocks.

Shortly after announcing that revenue in the first quarter of the year had more than doubled to 186.6m lari ($76.5m) from 72.6m lari in 2016, Georgia Healthcare Group shares listed on the London Stock Exchange hit 370p. This was just shy of an all-time high of 379p reached earlier this year.

In a statement Georgian Healthcare, whose core business is running hospitals and health services, said that the addition of a pharmaceutical business had boosted its revenue.

“Our key focus during the first quarter of 2017 has been to ensure the successful integration of the newly-acquired Pharmadepot business,” it said in a statement.

Georgia Healthcare said it had a 29% share of the pharmaceuticals sector. It is Georgia’s largest healthcare provider, operating over 2,500 hospital beds, 23% of the market.

Georgia’s healthcare system has been revolutionized by the Georgian Dream government who introduced a variant of the Universal Healthcare model in 2013.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Healthcare revolution in Georgia spurs private business boom

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TBILISI, MAY 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — While success and failure in Georgia’s acrimonious political arena are fragile, support for the Georgian Dream’s Universal Healthcare system has been consistently high.

Introduced in 2013, its advocates say that it has increased people’s access to healthcare and also given private companies such as Georgian Healthcare Group a huge boost.

In a survey by the International Republican Institute, 19% of respondents said that reforming the health service was the best thing that the government has done since winning power in 2012. The next most popular answer was achieving visa-free access to the EU, identified as important by 4% of respondents.

What the Georgian Dream government did was simple, said George Gotsadze, director of the Curatio International Foundation. He explained that it created a state- funded healthcare system that replaced an insurance-based system that only half the population had opted into.

“Prior to 2013, with public financing healthcare coverage was provided for 1.6m people out of 3.7m. The Universal Health Programme pretty much-expanded coverage to all the population of Georgia,” he said.

The government has also, effectively, cut out the middlemen insurers. It picks up the bills and pays the hospitals, run by private companies such as Georgian Healthcare Group, directly. In 2018, the Georgian government is expected to spend 3.1b lari on healthcare, up from 2.1b lari in 2015.

Most Georgians have seen a jump in the quality of their healthcare.

Teona, a Tbilisi resident gave birth to a premature child when she was six months pregnant. She said that she had incurred almost no expenses.

“My daughter was in an incubator for a long time. All I had to do was to bring diapers [nappies],” she said.

And this strategy has also spurred a major boom for business. Since 2013, Georgian Healthcare Group has expanded rapidly and now operates 35 hospitals. Spun off by Bank of Georgia, it listed on the London Stock Exchange in November 2015. Its shares have risen from 170p to 370p.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Kazakhstan’s drug purchasing overpays for medicines

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APRIL 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s state-run drug purchasing company SK Pharmacia paid nearly four times more than it needed to for various medicines in 2015 in a corruption scheme that cost the Kazakh taxpayer millions, the state’s anti-corruption unit said. SK Pharmacia has been the focus of a major corruption investigation since the end of last year.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

VPS Healthcare to invest in Azerbaijan

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APRIL 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — VPS Healthcare, a Dubai-based company, is to team up with the state-run Azerbaijan Investment Company to build a pharmaceuticals plant near Baku, media reported. The plant will be one of three new pharmaceutical plants being built in Azerbaijan. Russian investors started construction of pharmaceuticals plant in 2016 and Iranian investors in January.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)