On 20 August, the current owner of the Rustavi 2 TV company, Kibar Khalvashi, released a statement, saying that after the one-week deadline for the sale of the company expired nobody expressed a desire to buy it, reported georgiatoday.
“The deadline for the sale of Rustavi 2 has expired. However, actually, there is no real customer who would buy it. Now I have only two options: either to start the bankruptcy process or to try to save the company. I decided to save Rustavi 2, and I am ready to use all my resources and capabilities for this goal. I realize that I will have difficult negotiations with creditors in order to allow the company to function properly and overcome the crisis. However, I think we will overcome all the difficulties step by step," read the statement.
The legal disputes over the TV company are continuing as well. These disputes go beyond the ruling of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). The former owners of Rustavi 2, the Karamanishvili brothers, sued the Public Registry of Georgia for giving the shares of the company to Khalvashi too soon after the ruling was passed.
The brothers’ lawyer Dimitri Sadzaglishvili explained that after the Strasbourg Court’s ruling, the Registry should not have transferred shares to Kibar Khalvashi, as after the appeal, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Human Rights may make a different decision. He also suspected that the new owner could bankrupt the broadcasting company. “They will probably try to bankrupt the company, either directly or indirectly, which means the closure of programs, staff changes, reduction of salaries, etc,” he said.
On 18 July, the ECHR declared Kibar Khalvashi as the rightful owner of the TV company (Caucasus Watch reported). On 13 August, Khalvashi decided to put the company on sale, commenting that the previous owner Nika Gvaramia had put it in a “catastrophic situation” (also reported by Caucasus Watch).
