Bank of Georgia

JSC Bank of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს ბანკი, transliterated as 'sakartvelos banki') is a leading universal Georgian bank with operations in Georgia and Ukraine. Bank of Georgia is the largest bank by assets, loans and equity in Georgia. The major component of the Galt & Taggart Index, the bank has 102 branches and over 400,000 retail and approximately 50,000 corporate current accounts. The bank offers a full range of retail banking and corporate and investment banking services to its customers across Georgia. The bank also provides a wide range of corporate and retail insurance products through its wholly-owned subsidiary Aldagi-BCI. Galt and Taggart Securities, the wholly owned subsidiary of the bank provides asset & wealth management services to its corporate and retail customers.

Bank of Georgia is the benchmark stock on the Georgian Stock Exchange (GSE: GEB). The bank has enjoyed success in attracting institutional investors, including Firebird, East Capital, Finasta, and several hedge funds. In addition, several large European institutional investors have gained exposure to the bank through call warrants (tradable in Vienna) issued by Bank Austria Creditanstalt and through SEB Vilniaus Bankas. On November 29, 2006 the bank has listed its shares in the form of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on London Stock Exchange (LSE: BGEO). On 12 February 2007 Bank of Georgia has successfully closed its US$200 million debut Regulation S 5-year senior unsecured Eurobond transaction, the first international bond offering from Georgia. The Eurobond was issued at par and carries a 9% coupon rate paid semi-annually. As of December 31, 2006, the bank was approximately 85% institutionally owned, with the remainder owned by senior management and approximately 1,600 resident and non-resident retail shareholders.

In July 2005 and 2006, Euromoney named Bank of Georgia the winner of the Best Bank in Georgia Award for Excellence.

In December 2006, Bank of Georgia received The Bank of The Year Award for Georgia from The Banker.

Bank of Georgia has the following credit ratings:

Standard & Poor's: 'B+/B', Stable

Moody's: 'B3/NP' (FC) & 'Baa3/P-3' (LC), Stable

Fitch Ratings: 'B/B', Stable

The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bank of Georgia, Lado Gurgenidze, was nominated, on November 16, 2007, by the President Mikheil Saakashvili as the Prime Minister to succeed Zurab Noghaideli who resigned citing poor health conditions. The supervisory board invited former Vice Chairman Nicholas Enukidze to succeed on the position of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the BoG.

Share price of BoG peaked in July 2007, reaching its all time high at $43 per share. Since then, the share price has been continuously declining and by the end of July 2008 shares were trading at levels lower than their original IPO price of $18.

External links

* [http://www.bog.ge Bank of Georgia]
* [http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/pricesnews/prices/system/detailedprices.htm?sym=US0622692046USUSDIOB%20B1GJ6T8BGEO BGEO prices at London Stock Exchange]
* [http://www.gse.ge/Stocks/data3.asp?Code=GEB GEB prices at Georgian Stock Exchange]