BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 16
Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The Georgian Railway (GR) will borrow $500 million to repay old debt, Trend reports via the GR’s financial report.
According to the document, the GR hires foreign experts and plans to issue Eurobonds worth $500 million in June 2021.
As reported, the new bonds will be spent on refinancing 10-year Eurobonds issued in 2012. Georgian Railway took the old debt for the Tbilisi Bypass Railway project. Some share of the debt was sent on the construction of new tunnels and bridges around Tbilisi, but in 2013 the Georgian Dream government suspended the project. Consequently, this foreign debt was taken by the Georgian Railway to create non-performing and amortized assets.
In 2020, the Georgian Railway transported a total of 11.1 million tons of cargo, which was 0.2 million tons more compared to 2019. Despite that, the railway’s total revenue declined in 2020. Georgian Railway received a total of 489.4 million lari ($142.5 million) in revenue from various types of railway services in 2020, which is 2 million lari ($582,553) less compared to the previous year.
According to the financial report, the company ended 2020 with a loss of 164 million lari ($47.7 million). The loss is grown by 159 million lari ($46.3 million) compared to 2019.
The distribution of railway revenues is as follows:
Freight shipment - 389.3 million lari ($113.3 million), an increase of 4 percent year-on-year;
Logistics services - 54.1 million lari ($15.7 million), an increase of 11 percent year-on-year;
Passenger transfers - 11.2 million lari ($3.2 million), a decrease of 64 percent year-on-year;
Revenue from car rental - 8.8 million lari ($2.5 million), a decrease of 45 percent year-on-year;
Other income - 11.8 million lari ($3.4 million), an increase of 71 percent year-on-year.
According to the company’s financial performance, 170.5 million lari ($49.6 million) was spent on employees’ salaries, 41.4 million lari ($12 million) – on electricity and other operating expenses, depreciation expenses amounted to 76.1 million lari ($22.1 million).
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