facebook.com/ georgiatoday Issue no: 878/44 • SEPTEMBER 13 - 15, 2016 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50 In this week’s issue... US Wine Experts Visit Georgia PAGE 2 Do Teachers Respond to Incentives? A Philanthropic Experiment in Sachkhere Reveals All FOCUS ISET PAGE 4 Best Georgian ON BANKING Wine on Show TBC Bank becomes largest Georgian bank by Loans & Deposits PAGE 3 at Prestigious Speciality & Fine Food Fair, New University Town to Be Built in Kutaisi London PAGE 5 lion, fully fi nanced by Cartu BY NINO GUGUNISHVILI Fund. With a capacity of 60,000 Mozaika Holding: students, the university town new university in Kutaisi will have 140 hec- 8 Years in the town is planned tares of land, making it a home for Kutaisi, for future top professionals in Advertising western Geor- all fi elds, something much Business gia, set to be the needed for the fast growth of Alargest of its kind in the Cau- the country’s economy. PAGE 6 casus region. Equipped with The new university complex modern infrastructure and is expected to receive its fi rst new laboratories, it will be an students in 2019. WHERE to educational-scientifi c center Cartu Fund will fully fi nance for the western part of Geor- all works related to the con- Go, Stay, Eat, gia, as well as for the wider struction and technical equip- region. ping of the Kutaisi University Drink, Buy in The total budget for the new complex and the Tbilisi Tech- university town, as well as for nological Institute, and will September the Tbilisi-based Techno- hand over full ownership of logical Institute, is EUR 1 bil- both to the State. PAGE 8 Prepared for Georgia Today Business by Markets Asof09ͲSepͲ2016 STOCKS Price w/w m/m BONDS Price w/w m/m BankofGeorgia(BGEOLN) GBP30.44 +3,8% +3,6% GEOROG04/21 105.56(YTM5.37%) +0,3% +0,9% GHG(GHGLN) GBP2.92 Ͳ0,9% Ͳ3,2% GEORG04/21 112.55(YTM3.86%) +0,3% +0,7% TBCBankGroup(TBCGLN) GBP11.00 Ͳ3,3% na GRAIL07/22 113.06(YTM5.13%) +0,7% +1,1% BGEOLN07/23 103.25(YTM5.43%) +0,4% +1,9% COMMODITIES Price w/w m/m CrudeOil,Brent(US$/bbl) 48,01 +2,5% +6,7% CURRENCIES Price w/w m/m GoldSpot(US$/OZ) 1327,83 +0,2% Ͳ1,0% GEL/USD 2,3100 +1,0% Ͳ1,6% GEL/EUR 2,5964 +1,9% Ͳ0,5% INDICES Price w/w m/m GEL/GBP 3,0648 +0,5% +0,4% FTSE100 6776,95 Ͳ1,7% Ͳ1,1% GEL/CHF 2,3679 +1,4% Ͳ0,8% FTSE250 17894,19 Ͳ0,7% +1,2% GEL/RUB 0,0356 +1,7% Ͳ1,7% DAX 10573,44 Ͳ1,0% Ͳ1,1% GEL/TRY 0,7779 +0,4% Ͳ1,7% DOWJONES 18085,45 Ͳ2,2% Ͳ2,4% GEL/AZN 1,3863 +2,7% Ͳ2,0% NASDAQ 5125,91 Ͳ2,4% Ͳ1,9% GEL/AMD 0,0049 +2,1% Ͳ MSCIEMEE 129,85 +1,8% +1,0% GEL/UAH 0,0866 +0,9% Ͳ8,5% MSCIEM 909,32 +1,1% +1,1% EUR/USD 0,8903 Ͳ0,7% Ͳ1,0% SP500 2127,81 Ͳ2,4% Ͳ2,5% GBP/USD 0,7538 +0,2% Ͳ2,0% MICEX 2028,25 +1,2% +3,7% CHF/USD 0,9756 Ͳ0,5% Ͳ0,6% MSCIFM 2538,64 Ͳ1,1% Ͳ1,8% RUB/USD 64,8310 Ͳ0,5% +0,2% GTIndex(GEL) 841,46 Ͳ0,1% Ͳ0,1% TRY/USD 2,9688 +0,6% +0,0% GTIndex(USD) 720,40 Ͳ0,7% +1,4% AZN/USD 1,6675 Ͳ0,7% +2,6% GEORGIA TODAY 2 BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 13 - 15, 2016 Photo: US wine experts taste Georgian wines. Source: Georgian Wine Agency US Wine Experts Visit Georgia inwork, the quality of Georgian wine is wine tourism in Georgia,'' she said. elsewhere,” Samanishvili said. delegates from 42 countries and more BY THEA MORRISON increasing by the year. She also noted The Head of the National Wine Agency, He also highlighted the fi rst Interna- than 150 organizations. that the quality of many commercial and Giorgi Samanishvili, noted that the pres- tional Wine Tourism Conference organ- According to the Georgian Wine Agency, non-commercial wines has reached entation of Georgian wine to American ized by the UN World Tourism Organi- the data of the last 8 months shows that n the frames of a one-week wine international standards. wine professionals is much needed, as zation (the UNWTO) and noted that this 172 thousand bottles (0,75l) of wine have tour, a ten-member group of wine “The quality and desire to produce the US is one of the increasingly impor- event not only served to promote tourism been exported from Georgia to the USA, experts from the United States of very high quality wine at a world-stand- tant export markets for Georgian wine. and Georgian wine, but also increased a result 10 percent higher than last year. America (US) visited Georgia. ard level is on the up in Georgia,” she He went on to say that Georgian wine awareness of the country as a whole. The group was led by international said, adding that such tours as this latest is not well-known on the US market yet “It is very signifi cant that the fi rst global EDITOR'S NOTE: Within the printed ver- Iwine master Liz Granik and saw the aim to raise awareness of Georgian wine but that he hopes, as a result of such wine conference was held in Georgia sion of story "Feast in Karabakh Causes guests visiting Georgian wine companies in the US and help to introduce tradi- visits and collaboration with American because wine tourism should start in the International Scandal" on Sept. 9th and small wineries in the Kartli and tional Georgian wine-making methods experts, Georgian wine will become homeland of wine,” he said. "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" appeared without the quotation marks. This was an Kakheti regions for wine tasting. to foreign professionals. better-known there. The fi rst International Wine Tourism editorial mistake and in no way suggests According to Granik, who is the Head “This will eventually contribute to the “Experts tasting wines on location is Conference was held in Georgia on Sep- our recognition of said location. of Georgia’s contractor company Tast- growth of export of Georgian wine, and quite different from reading about it tember 7-9 with the participation of 250 GEORGIA TODAY SEPTEMBER 13 - 15, 2016 BUSINESS 3 World Car-Free Day TBC Bank Acquires 94% in Tbilisi Announced Stake in Bank Republic, Becomes Largest Georgian Bank by Loans & Deposits BY KATIE RUTH DAVIES BC Bank has acquired a 93.64 percent stake in JSC of the frequent and common use of old Bank Republic for GEL 315 BY NINO GUGUNISHVILI vehicles in the city and within the million and selected assets country as a whole. and liabilities of JSC Pro- “Let’s see what our city looks like Tgress Bank, creating the largest Georgian bilisi plans to participate without air-pollution and noise! Tbilisi bank by both loans and deposits. in a World Car-Free day is not a city of cars, it’s our city,” stated TBC Bank Group PLC (TBC Bank) campaign on September the organizers of Car-Free day. today announced that, together with its 22. The Car-Free day is to be held under subsidiary, JSC TBC Bank, it has entered Georgian community the aegis of European Mobility Week, into an agreement with Societe Generale Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, Chief Executive Antoine Gabizon, Chief Executive Offi cer Tgroup ‘Guli Tbilisisatvis’ (Heart for the Europe-wide awareness-raising S.A. one of the leading universal banks Offi cer of TBC Bank of Bank Republic Tbilisi) has announced its plan to campaign on sustainable urban mobil- in Georgia. organize a Car-Free day in the capital ity, the objective of which is to achieve “We believe that the acquisition of remaining 6.36 percent, currently owned zon, Chief Executive Offi cer of Bank of Georgia, and has invited citizens to a positive behavioural change towards Bank Republic is a critical step in deliv- by the European Bank for Reconstruc- Republic. “We are very much looking join the initiative by leaving their vehi- smarter, cleaner and more intelligent ering on TBC Bank’s strategy and rep- tion and Development (EBRD). forward to welcoming Bank Republic cles at home and walking or using urban mobility. resents a major step forward in TBC The transaction is expected to be com- employees into TBC Bank and helping public transport throughout the day. Participation in citizen-led initiatives Bank’s ambition to build the leading pleted by the end of 2016. us successfully operate and serve the Heart for Tbilisi addresses the envi- at the local level during the week of banking group in Georgia and the broader J.P. Morgan is acting as exclusive fi nan- clients of the largest bank in Georgia. ronmental concerns that the city of 16-22 September represents the high- Caucasus region,” said Vakhtang But- cial adviser to TBC Bank, and Baker & We share similar ambitions and together Tbilisi is facing today, with the level light of the campaign. European Mobil- skhrikidze, Chief Executive Offi cer of McKenzie LLP as international legal adviser we are excited by the opportunity to of air pollution rate at three times ity Week is managed by the European TBC Bank. “Bank Republic is an excel- throughout the acquisition process. grow and develop the combined entity.” higher than the actual norm. Commission – Directorate-General for lent strategic fi t for TBC Bank given its “The TBC Bank management team has TBC Bank also announced that it has The community group quotes data Mobility and Transport.