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Swiss Multiplex buys Georgian water firm for $85 mln

TBILISI - Swiss firm Multiplex Solutions will pay $85 million for Georgia’s state-owned water supply company, Tbilisi Water Ltd, which includes a hydro power plant, an official said on Saturday.

Georgia’s government is selling 100 percent of the Tbilisi Water, whose Zhinvali plant supplies with water a part of the country’s capital, Tbilisi.

‘Multiplex Solutions is a winner, it will pay $85 million,’ Tbilisi’s Vice-Mayor Mamuka Akhvlediani told reporters.

The plant, which has installed capacity of 130 megawatts, needs reconstruction and is currently working at the capacity of no more than 75 megawatts.

‘We are going to invest $235 million in rehabilitation of the water supply system,’ Andro Basilaia, head of the Multiplex Solutions’ office in Tbilisi, told Reuters.

The highest bid -- $107.6 million—was submitted by Spanish Aqualia, but Georgian authorities chose Multiplex because of more acceptable tariff and investment plan for the next six years.

Basilaia said the company also planned to implement a project of alternative water supply worth additional $200 million to provide 24-hour water supplies to all parts of Tbilisi in less than four years.