Georgia Capital PLC 3Q18 Trading Update

Georgia Capital PLC ("the Group") has published today a trading update for the third quarter of 2018. The trading update together with the supplementary financial information is available on the Group’s website at https://georgiacapital.ge/ir/financial-results. Georgia Capital PLC 3Q18 trading update presentation is available on the Group’s website at https://georgiacapital.ge/ir/presentations. An investor/analyst conference call, organised by the Group, will be held on 6 November 2018, at 14:00 UK / 15:00 CET / 9:00 U.S Eastern Time. The duration of the call will be 60 minutes and will consist of a 15-minute update and a 45-minute Q&A session.

Management Commentary

"The 3Q18 results demonstrated another quarter of excellence in operational execution in our private investment portfolio, while the market value of listed investments was impacted by global equity market trends. Our NAV decreased by 4.7% to GEL 1.6 billion in 3Q18 resulting from a 5.6% decrease in the market value of our listed investments and an increase of GEL 69 million in net debt, which were partially offset by 8.0% growth in our private investment portfolio value. NAV per share decreased by only 2.4% to GEL 44.6 at 30 September 2018, as we continued to buy Georgia Capital shares at significant discounts to management NAV. As of 30 September 2018, our investment in Georgia Capital shares, measured at market value (LSE closing price), was GEL 39.3 million, an 8.8% premium to their buyback price of GEL 36.1 million. Under the management NAV private businesses are conservatively valued at their IFRS book values, however, starting from FY18 results announcement we intend to provide management estimated fair values for individual private businesses.

During 3Q18 we invested GEL 32 million in our early stage portfolio businesses primarily across Beverages and Hospitality & Commercial Real Estate to capitalise on the fast-growing Georgian economy. At the same time, we continue to build the ground for the Group’s intended expansion into the education industry. From a macro-economic perspective, despite emerging market volatilities, the Georgian economy remained resilient with 4.0% y-o-y real GDP growth and close to target (2.9%) inflation in 3Q18. In line with US dollar strengthening and turbulence in trading markets, GEL depreciated against the US dollar by 6.7% q-o-q, however, strong governance and export market diversification increased resilience towards negative shocks, and the nominal effective exchange rate appreciated by on average 4.1% q-o-q in 3Q18.”

This announcement contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements concerning expectations, projections, objectives, targets, goals, strategies, future events, future revenues or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans or intentions relating to acquisitions, competitive strengths and weaknesses, plans or goals relating to financial position and future operations and development. Although Georgia Capital PLC believes that the expectations and opinions reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations and opinions will prove to have been correct.

Conference call details

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181105006080/en/