Member Info for Looed

Gakharia did take time to once again thank their most important ally

https://twitter.com/GakhariaGiorgi/status/1346077406046658560

It might be more quiet than usual for the next fews days -

From January 3 to January 15 the holidays are announced.

By the decision of the Interagency Coordination Council, January 3 - January 15 is a holiday period across the country:

Vacation / holidays are announced; All restrictions imposed from 28 November to 24 December shall be reinstated; All public or private institution terminate work, except for banks and facilities and services of strategic importance.

https://www.interpressnews.ge/en/article/111101-winter-holiday-until-15-january-starts-from-today

Degnan & Co. really pulled out all the stops on this one -

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf8Sg5fBF3lHGBwfc6h7FDw

Bigun2 / gotreal - There was a time where the only thing talked about here was politics. I have seen on other BB that moderation has tightened over the past few months.

Maybe you can both try to contact LSE moderators to get the point across, they where very reasonable with me. The more voices they hear the more they might understand why we see a relationship between FRR and the political world.

Insulting moderators / LSE isn't going help get us a sympathetic hearing.

The chat rules do state that a "post should not post or otherwise publish any content unrelated to the board or the board's topic."

I have started to put a little explainer on my posts to show why I think it relevant to FRR. Not sure it will have any effect but the moderators do have the final say on what they consider relevant or not. We all agreed to these rules when signing the T&C's.

Dr Gareth Cave
Remote Monitored Systems PLC ("RMS" or the "Company")

Comment on Todays RMS Announcement

Dr Cave notes the announcement made today by the Board of RMS. Dr Cave considers this to be a positive response by the Board to shareholder concerns and concludes his discussions.

ENDS

(I hope the moderators can see the relevance in this as FRR often talk about issues with the local courts - bank accounts blocked etc)

First, from 23rd Dec -

During my ambassadorship to Georgia, the courts were not independent — Ian Kelly

Ian Kelly, a former US ambassador to Georgia, said the courts were not actually independent during his tenure. Kelly served as U.S. ambassador from 2015-2018. As he said in the program Zona, interference in the justice system was especially carried out with respect to foreign investment.

"I no longer am in Georgia, so cautious I should be, I want to talk about Georgia, stay in the My experience the. My ambassador for years one of the main issues that washingtonv annoying the subject should have been in the judicial system, political interference was.

The courts in Georgia were not actually independent. There have been interventions in the justice system, particularly in the case of foreign investment. It was clear to everyone that there were private interests with respect to foreign investment. Courts typically take decisions against foreign investors. Investors toward a very bad message was that they could not afford on their investments legal insurance", — said Ian Kelly.
https://on.ge/story/72353-????-?????????-????????????-?????????????-????????-??-??????-??????????????-???-????

That article comes out of this one which fact-checks FDI claims, discusses the dwindling investment climate and also mentions issues the judiciary
http://www.factcheck.ge/en/story/38923-natia-turnava-georgia-took-the-leading-eighth-position-in-the-oecd-survey-as-one-of-the-most-open-economies-in-terms-of-attracting-foreign-investments-based-on-the-fdi-to-the-gdp-ratio-georgia-is-one-of-the-most-successful-countries-globally

Piscean / Bedex - yes my last post was removed. It was an add-on to a post by Aurora1 and that original post is still up. As that post was up, and my post referenced energy policy, I wrongly assumed it would be OK to post.

A couple of weeks or so ago I did ask LSE why posts where being deleted, sometimes almost instantly. They replied very quickly saying the BB's are monitored and anything non-company related (presumably political) is removed and should be posted in a general chat BB. I sent a copy of the Pompeo letter to them to show how we see both subjects as linked, but they never replied.

I don't think anyone is reporting posts, just that this BB might have a reputation for a lot of non company specific chat (from LSE point of view) so its checked more than others. It's likely a split second decision for the moderators which might be why there sometimes seems no reason to the deletions.

A bit more on the '90 day' rule -

"The document reads that not later than 90 days after enactment of the act, the secretary of state should submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations detailing actions taken by the government of Georgia since January 1, 2020 to strengthen democratic institutions, including through recent elections, combat corruption and ensure that rule of law in the private-sector and the foreign investment climate meet international standards."

https://agenda.ge/en/news/2020/4051

I am sure this think tank have referenced FRR either directly / indirectly in the past. Its a long-ish article and the good Dr says about the recent visit by Mike P -

"They talked about all key priorities of the US-Georgia Strategic Partnership Charter."

And she reminds us what a key part of that Charter is -

The Charter underlines: 'Recognizing the importance of a well-functioning, market-oriented energy sector, the United States and Georgia intend to explore opportunities for increasing Georgia's energy production, enhance the energy efficiency, and increase the physical security of energy transit through Georgia to European markets'.

https://www.interpressnews.ge/en/article/111050-dr-khatuna-burkadze-it-is-essential-to-accelerate-georgias-membership-in-nato-through-the-strong-support-of-the-us-and-other-members-of-the-alliance

The US have produced this 1 min video -

https://ge.usembassy.gov/u-s-guarantees-europes-energy-security-video/

MysticMike - even though both sides have been very 'unfriendly' to each other, the Govt did recently agree that it was in their best strategic interests to let FRR carry on, subject to certain conditions being agreed. Hopefully that has / is being worked on and we will find out soon what that might mean for us.

The goal of the Georgian government is also to deepen relations with the United States as the country's ‘main strategic partner and ally’.

A special priority is to strengthen US-Georgian cooperation to increase US involvement in the Black Sea geostrategic area, strengthen defence and security cooperation, education and interpersonal relations, reach a free trade agreement with the US, and, thus, increase the US investment in Georgia”, the resolution says.

https://agenda.ge/en/news/2020/4038

Lots of west-friendly soundbites yesterday as the new govt was sworn in. Lets hope FRR continues to be in the mix as they focus on the economy can put words into actions

The PM - "The government will do its best to make sure the program submitted to the Parliament and is labeled as Towards Building a European State, gets implemented in full, as the greatest goal and dream of our country is to make an official application for a fully-fledged membership of the EU in 4 years. The application should be absolutely justified, which means that country should be significantly advanced in several dimensions. Of course, it includes democratization, economic security and all of that is part of the program, which we will speak about.....The foundation to the economy of Georgia is a free market and private initiative, development of the private sector and businesses. We will do our best to demonstrate full support to the private sector......He also noted that over 80% of the population keenly supports Georgia's full integration to the EU and Euro-Atlantic Institutions......it is most important to deepen further cooperation with strategic partners of Georgia and primarily with the USA in areas like security, economy and democracy."

And from Natia Turnava -“We are building a European state, which, first of all, presupposes the existence of strong, free private business,” Turnava emphasised.

According to Turnava, the government is doing reforms to strengthen private business. “To make private business socially responsible and to become the main driving force in the post-recovery period of economic recovery and, of course, to create jobs and employment,”

It's a normal working day in my part of the world but hope you are having a Happy Christmas wherever you may be. Hopefully we won't have to keep this sleuthing lark up for too much longer.

Dr Gareth Cave
Remote Monitored Systems PLC ("RMS" or the "Company")

Update for Shareholders

Dr Cave is grateful to RMS's advisers, SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP, for organising a virtual meeting this afternoon to enable Alex Vergopoulos and Egremont Capital Limited to speak with the Board of the Company and that constructive discussions are now taking place between the parties.

ENDS

Enquiries

Jonathan Hall
Egremont Capital Limited
jonathan.hall@egremont.com
0203 697 9496

ZM did mention FRGC in Translation 30 -

“Frontera continues its activities in Georgia as usual,” Director of Frontera Resources Georgia, Zaza Mamulaishvili, told “Business Partner”.

According to his statement, reorganization has been started in the parent company, which is connected to the change between the shareholders. As the result of this reorganizations, the owner of Frontera Resources Georgia Corporation Georgia Branch may be Frontera Resources Georgia Corporation again, or something else may change in the future. Although, as Zaza Mamulaishvili says, these changes will not affect the company's operations in Georgia."

Phil_2018 - Purely an assumption on my part, I assume the Order will be signed as FRR chose not to contest the Petition.

Regarding the lack of legal representation by FRR - Earsbern posted this a couple of days ago -

"When the Arbitration took place, FRR weren't legally represented; they said that, as long as the company still controlled the 1% of the land remaining, it didn't really matter. When the liquidation process started in NY, they weren't represented; as WHamBoy has pointed out, they said the license had been switched to FRUS, so it didn't really matter. Now they haven't got representation in the Caymans; maybe it doesn't really matter?

There's a consistency here, so I'm fervently hoping that it really does fit a plan. They have, after all, got plenty of lawyers - good ones - in California and London, so the company still seems able to move when it believes it has to."

The (proposed) Winding Up Order has been submitted to the Judge for signing.

You should be able to access the proposed document here -

https://judicial.ky/court_search/#

Natia Turnava had a busy day yesterday. EU membership, Anaklia Port and reforms to the Energy market. I won't post the links but you can easily find multiple sources. Though light on detail here is a typical quote -

"Continuation of structural reforms is planned: development of the capital market, energy reforms, large-scale reform of the mineral sector, (and) increasing the efficiency of state-owned enterprises," she added."

On Anaklia Port she says

"The port of Anaklia is still our priority. It is very unfortunate that this project was delayed, by 2020 we should have had an already operating port. We continue to work on this project on behalf of the government. Next year we will resume the technical-economical study on the basis of which we will start working with investors"

"technical study" is broadly similar to the last time she mentioned FRR - discussing "technical details" with the company.

Pt.4 (and final part)

J1 - Will there be sanctions other than letters? Towards Ivanishvili or members of the Georgian government?

ZM - By the way, for the first time in the history of Georgian-American relations, the registered sanctions bill is joined almost every week by a new member and this process will continue.

J1 - What do you think how will it end?

ZM - I think it will end with the Georgian government stopping violence against companies, non-governmental organizations. The state will come to its senses by creating a much better condition to create more wealth and goodness for the people of Georgia.

https://formulanews.ge/Programs_Video/%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%A2%E1%83%98%E1%83%99%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%20%E1%83%A4%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A0%E1%83%9B%E1%83%A3%E1%83%9A%E1%83%90:%20%E1%83%A1%E1%83%A2%E1%83%A3%E1%83%9B%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%96%E1%83%90%E1%83%96%E1%83%90%20%E1%83%9B%E1%83%90%E1%83%9B%E1%83%A3%E1%83%9A%E1%83%90%E1%83%98%E1%83%A8%E1%83%95%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98/1233