CONTENTS Forbes English #9 // July 2018 FACT & COMMENT Second Come Back for 10 Second Departure by Giorgi Isakadze LEADERBOARDS The World’s 12 Billionaires 50 Most Engaged 18 Companies 20 The Greatest Givers 22 Hedgemony The World’s 100 Most 24 Valuable Brands in 2018 Fifa World Cup 2018 in p. 46 28 Numbers 32 Money in Sports 2 | FORBES ENGLISH JULY 2018 CONTENTS Forbes English #9 // July 2018 THOUGHT LEADERS Television Revenue 34 by Beso Namchavadze A New Concept of 38 Industry for the Region by Keti Bochorishvili International Aspects of 40 Georgia’s Tax Legislation by Gela Barshov Khachapuri’s Great 42 Potential by Levan Kokiashvili p. 42 TECHNOLOGIES ENTREPRENEURS Creating a Blockchain- 58 based Platform for the Destination Developer Green Community 46 by Cynthia Prisley by Inge Snip Georgia’s Postman Vision of the Future 52 by Anita Muskaria 62 by Elene Chomakhidze p. 28 In Georgia, Blockchain 66 Technologies Provide Significant Opportunity to Innovate, Improve Services for Citizens by Nini Longurashvili 4 | FORBES ENGLISH JULY 2018 24, I. Abashidze Str., 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia Tel.: + 995 (32) 2 24 24 55 WWW.DAVINES.COM WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DAVINES CONTENTS Forbes English #9 // July 2018 HISTORY Metamorphosis! 70 by Aleksi Khoroshvil George “Coby” 76 Kobakhidze from Tkhmori by Emil Avdaliani Matchabelli – 80 Where Exposure To 78 The Prince of Perfume Fake News Is Highest by Emil Avdaliani p. 58 6 | FORBES ENGLISH JULY 2018 24, I. Abashidze Str., 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia Tel.: + 995 (32) 2 24 24 55 WWW.DAVINES.COM WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DAVINES CONTENTS Forbes English #8 // April 2018 Editor in Chief: Giorgi Isakadze Forbes USA Editor-In-Chief: Executive Editor: Anna Eristavi Steve Forbes Editor: Kate Tabatadze Chief Content Officer: Randall Lane Copy Editor: William King, Eleonor Rambo Art & Design: Creative Director / Photo Editor / Designer: Robert Mansfield Serga Nemsitsveridze Editorial Director, International Editions: Katya Writers/ Reporter: Zaza Abashidze, Beso Soldak Namchavadze, Keti Bochorishvili, Gela Barshov, Levan Kokiashvili, Cynthia Prisley, Anita Forbes Media Muskaria, Inge Snip, Elene Chomakhidze, Nini President & CEO: Michael Federle Longurashvili, Aleksi Khoroshvil, Emil Avdaliani Senior Advisor, International: Tom Wolf Photographers: Khatuna Khutsishvili, Khatuna Khutsishvili, Davit Phantsulaia Founded in 1917 B.C. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1917-54) Web Editor: Gogi Kavtaradze Malcolm S. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1954-90) James W. Michaels, Editor (1961-99) William Forbes Georgia is published by Baldwin, Editor Media Partners JSC (1999-2010) Publisher: Maia Mirijanashvili Copyright@2018 Forbes LLC. All rights reserved. Title is protected through a trademark registered Advertising and Marketing: Leli Mirijanashvili with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office 8 | FORBES ENGLISH JULY 2018 24, I. Abashidze Str., 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia Tel.: + 995 (32) 2 24 24 55 WWW.DAVINES.COM WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DAVINES FACT & COMMENT SECOND COME BACK FOR SECOND DEPARTURE GIORGI ISAKADZE “YOUR AGENT DOESN’T KNOW YET was being cleaned by the Mayor Kaladze’s THAT HE HAS BEEN EXPOSED. He will “TbilService Group” employees. learn it today from the newspapers. He is a This moment slipped away too and like good financier, so take him with you, he might our Minister of Interior - Gakharia, I extend come in handy. I was talking about the presi- my apologies for that! Forgive me for so many dent of the Cartu Group – Giga Chrdileli”, - skipped editorials, but we have not had so stated Ivanishvili in his letter published on many political developments taking place so October 12, 2012. fast and somewhat dramatically and even epi- Ivanishvili is no stranger to saying goodbye cally… so what if this was fairly gloomy. Giorgi and this time he bid farewell to the Kumsishvi- Kvirikashvili’s hourglass was turned much li-Kvirikashvili duet. earlier. Actually it was turned way before In fact he did the same thing some time ago, when in his Kvirikashvili, acting on behalf of his party, asked Ivanishvili first open letter Ivanishvili accused the Chairman of the Bank’s to return. This political comeback turned out to be fateful for Supervisory Board of being an agent and dismissed members Kvirikashvili and that is why he was forced to leave Ivanish- of his team along with the chairman, namely director of the vili for the second time after the latter’s return to the politics. bank and his deputy. And just recently, he got rid of the prime- However, the events that preceded Kvirikashvili’s resig- minister and the First Vice Prime Minister. nation were completely devoid of any epic nature. Appoint- Initially the title of this article was “Unknown Kvirikash- ment of the CEO of JSC Georgian Railway as the Minister vili”, which largely resonated the former Prime Minister’s of Finance, who definitely cannot take credit for effective mischievous clash with a member of the United National reforms in the sphere of railway services and whose name is Movement –Nikanor Melia and an open confrontation with associated with some entirely new, independent and rather the sibling of his friend and recommender Levan Gachechi- individual initiatives that were often disregarded by Kviri- ladze– singer Ucnobi. But I missed the moment. Probably I kashvili and Kumsishvili. There were some rather successful should have written about this in my blog. attempts to sugar-coat these initiatives and present them as The second title for this article was - „LEGALIZED a message that described the government’s vision. Kumsish- Großmeister”, which is largely linked to Ivanishvili’s political vili’s much-talked-about response to the Minister of Finance, comeback and the events that took place on Rustaveli Avenue who had waged a war against banks, is a clear evidence of following the police raids in night clubs. Ivanishvili skilfully this. Kumsishvili pledged that the state would assist small managed to avert the repercussions of these actions by airing and medium businesses by setting up a new credit guarantee his son’s – Bera Ivanishvili’s video and instructing the Min- fund that would compensate the risks that commercial banks ister of Interior to arrive at the scene to diffuse tension and have been rather reluctant to embrace in the recent years confrontation that was orchestrated by a specific group of the despite the fact that their SME portfolios are stocked to fund same government. This game was indeed worthy of a grand- these type of businesses. master and its Endshpiel was launched at 9.00 pm when Bera’s The initiative to set up a new credit guarantee fund, along song “Legalize’’ was uploaded on the net and the game ended with the four-point reform plan prepared by Kvirikashvili’s at 2.30 a.m. with almost emptied Rustaveli Avenue, which cabinet will be dismissed in favour of Mamuka Bakhtadze’s 10 | FORBES ENGLISH JULY 2018 completely different and mostly wel- them represented the ruling party. Why all there was one person at the meet- come initiatives. silent? Apart from some attempts to ing, in fact the only one, who was ‘a man And still the question remains: what answer Ivanishvili’s questions, everyone enough’ to attempt stopping Ivanishvili happened at the King Rostom’s Palace remained silent and obediently listened with his well-argued and convincing that is yet unknown to the Georgian and witnessed how the once exemplary statements. And he was the last person public? Probably not much. Journal- Prime Minister was ‘publicly disgraced’ who was indebted to Kvirikashvili in any ist Gocha Mirtskhulava described and this was far from criticism. respect. There was neither personal, nor everything that took place at the King For the record, not a single member political closeness between them. This Rostom’s Palace in detail and the Geor- of the ‘Georgian Dream’ party represent- brave person was the mayor of Tbilisi – gian media paid him due respect for ing the government, parliament and Kakhi Kaladze. Without any reservation, this. Nothing special happened at the chancellery had the guts to interrupt the he told Bidzina Ivanishvili that despite meeting, with the exception that this uncontrollable and reckless criticism of his deepest respect for him (Ivanishvili), was a hearing of the party case, where the Prime Minister by the party chair- he disagreed with his pathos, as well the recently returned chairman of the man. Not a single one of them. Kviri- as his evaluation of the Prime Minister party – Bidzina Ivanishvili played the kashvili was completely alone at the Kvirikashvili. part of the ‘prosecutor’, Prime Minis- meeting that was attended by 50 other Afterwards was what we have been ter Kvirikashvili was the “accused’’ and members of the ruling party. He was by witnessing for the past 6 years, namely there were 50 silent “witnesses’’. Some himself and in this lonely mode it took the UNICEF. And later the promised of them were members of the govern- him 24 hours to announce his decision empty tribune, the traditional ‘Dear ment, others were employees of the to resign. Compatriots ‘or friends. State Chancellery and the majority of I am not completely right here. After ...and the unchanged 25th TV episode. JULY 2018 FORBES ENGLISH | 11 THE WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES TOTAL NET WORTH: $9.1 TRILLION BILLIONAIRES: 2,208 UNITED STATES THE AMERICAS EUROPE MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA ASIA-PACIFIC WORTH: WORTH: WORTH: WORTH: WORTH: $3.1 TRILLION $563 BILLION $2.4 TRILLION $250 BILLION $2.8 TRILLION BILLIONAIRES: BILLIONAIRES: BILLIONAIRES: BILLIONAIRES: BILLIONAIRES: 585 138 559 99 827 Capitalism’s global conquest continues. There were 140 billionaires in the world when we published our first list, 31 years ago. Today there are more than 2,200. The vast majority are entrepreneurs—including Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person and the first to appear with a $100 billion-plus fortune—who got rich building their own companies, creating wealth and jobs and sparking innovation along the way.