The Georgian Railway (GR) will borrow 500 million USD to repay old debt, - the GR’s financial report reveals. According to the document, the state owed company hires foreign experts and plans to issue Eurobonds worth $500 million in June 2021.
The new bonds will be spent on refinancing 10-year Eurobonds issued in 2012. Georgian Railway took the old debt for 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 asset.
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 GEL in revenue from various types of railway services in 2020, which is 2 million less GEL compared to the previous year.
According to the financial report, the company ended 2020 with a loss of 164 million GEL. The loss is grown by 159 million GEL compared to 2019.
As of the financial report prepared by KPMG, the main source of the loss was the exchange rate difference in 2020. The company received a loss of 191 million GEL due to the exchange rate difference during the period.
Distribution of railway revenues is as follows:
Freight shipment - 389.3 million GEL, an increase of 4% y-o-y;
Logistics services - 54.1 million GEL, an increase of 11% y-o-y;
Passenger transfers - 11.2 million GEL, a decrease of 64% y-o-y;
Revenue from car rental - 8.8 million GEL, a decrease of 45% y-o-y;
Other income - 11.8 million GEL, an increase of 71% y-o-y.
According to the company’s financial performance, 170.5 million GEL was spent on employees’ salaries, 41.4 million GEL – on electricity and other operating expenses, depreciation expenses amounted to 76.1 million GEL.
