Georgian billionaire scraps bank sale, plans expansion, CEO says
By Bloomberg
Georgian billionaire and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has abandoned plans to sell Cartu Bank and will concentrate on expansion, the chairman of the lender's supervisory board said today.
The bank, which belongs to Ivanishvili's son Uta, will seek to grow from Georgia's sixth-largest lender to third or fourth, Nodar Javakhishvili said in a phone interview in Tbilisi.
"After evaluating and long thought, Ivanishvili decided not to sell the bank but instead to focus on larger expansion nationwide," Javakhishvili said.
He said negotiations had ended to sell Cartu to businessman Shota Shalelashvili, who said that he wanted to buy the bank for about $270 million in an interview in Tbilisi on Oct. 20.
Cartu is wholly owned by Uta Ivanishvili, according to Georgia's central bank. Bidzina Ivanishvili, 58, whose wealth is estimated at $5.7 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, transferred ownership to his son in 2011 before entering politics with his Georgian Dream coalition. He became prime minister in parliamentary elections in 2012 and stood down a year later.
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