Reuters 6 September 2012
Seeking to counter charges that he is Russia’s proxy in Georgia’s elections, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili has sold his last Russian business asset, his management firm said on Thursday.
The once-reclusive tycoon and his Georgia Dream coalition have been locked in a bitter fight with incumbent President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has called the businessman a Kremlin stooge.
Opinion polls show the coalition lags behind the ruling party for the election on October 1, but Ivanishvili’s political platform has angered the government and shaken up politics in Georgia, a strategically located Caucasus state of 4.5 million.
Unikor group in a statement said that Ivanishvili, 56, had sold Stoilenskaya Niva for $180 million to the U.S. Arco International Group and the transaction was expected to be completed within two month.
Ivanishvili told Reuters in an interview in May he was expecting to get $250-$300 million for Stoilenskaya Niva, or approximately what he had invested.
Earlier this year Ivanishvili sold his real estate development assets to Russian property group BIN for $982.5 million, his Russian bank Rossyisky Credit to a group of private investors for $352 million, as well as a pharmacy chain for approximately $60 million.