The Chief Executive of the Georgian Co-Investment Fund (“GCF”), George Bachiashvili, accompanied a high-level political and business delegation led by the Georgian Prime Minister to Davos, Switzerland, to take part in the World Economic Forum, on 22-25 January, 2014.
Other members of the delegation included senior members of the Georgian Government, such as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, George Kvirikashvili; Minister of Foreign affairs, Maia Panjikidze; Ambassador of Georgia to the Swiss Confederation, Irakli Kurashvili and Director of Georgia’s National Investment Agency, George Pertaia. Members of the Georgian business community also on the visit included CEO of JSC Georgian Railway, Mamuka Bakhtadze.
Established in September 2013, GCF is a $6bn private equity business focused on investment opportunities in Georgia and the CIS region across energy and infrastructure, agriculture and logistics, hospitality and real estate and manufacturing. The company is the region’s one of the largest private equity firms, backed by prominent members of the international and regional investment communities, including sovereign wealth funds, major global corporations and private family offices from countries including United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan, Turkey, China and Kazakhstan.
During the visit, Bachiashvili met with a number of senior executives to discuss prospects of cooperating on investment projects in the future, including: Chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus P. Mistry; President and Group CEO of Jumeirah Group, Gerald Lawless; Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, Stephen Allen Schwarzman; CEO of Lazard France, Matthieu Pigasse; Chairman and CEO of Lafarge, Bruno Lafont; Chairman and Managing Director of Agility Logistics, Tarek Sultan; Chairman, President and CEO of AGCO Corporation, Martin H. Richenhagen; and Group CEO of A.P Møller - Mærsk A/S, Nils Smedegaard Andersen.
George Bachiashvili, Chief Executive of GCF, said: “This is the GCF’s first time being formally represented at the World Economic Forum in Davos and the reception we had was extremely positive. Georgia is on the radar of blue-chip international investors and I held very positive dialogue with senior executives representing this community. They recognise the growth story and the investment case and we hope to continue building on these positive discussions in the near future.”
