The American Times spotlights Alliance Group Holding – Republic of Georgia
Alliance Group Holding (AGH) was established in 2005 by Georgian, American and European shareholders. The company manages seven subsidiary companies with diversified core businesses in various financial and consulting sectors:
- Microfinance
- Leasing
- Investments
- Real Estate
- Energy
- IT
- Business Information
- Credit Ratings
One of the best ground-floor opportunities that exist in the lucrative Georgian market, as in many emerging markets, is the need for alternative financing options. With current AGH partners ranging from the World Bank and EBRD to US firms, Global Investment Advisors (GIA) and D&B (NYSE:DNB), the company is poised to develop into a major player in the diverse financing options market indicative of western nations. However, this requires diverse knowledge from those interested, not just the required $25 million in capital. This is in fact the challenge; the diverse required knowledge, not just the money for AGH.
The financing side of their business encompasses 3 options: Capital, Micro-finance and Leasing. The last being a small but growing opportunity, as the market matures and the government begins to understand, really, what leasing is, the opportunities are tremendous for AGH , which acts as the only independent leasing entity in Georgia with the other two being large banks. When discussing micro-finance the competition is indeed stiff; however, the obvious value of doing business with AGH over a sole micro-finance bank is their diverse and vertically integrated platform that can assist clients from inception (business plans, IT structuring) to larger financing options and identifying growth opportunities through their strong command of the Georgian market.
The clearest way to identify their pulse on the Georgian market is to simply view their business units and compare them to the identified opportunities in the country scoped by international organizations and businesses alike. A few examples:
OPIC has invested with GMT (a US based real-estate firm) over $15 million in the past decade for commercial RE development in Tbilisi: AGH has a business unit that handles Property Valuation and Consulting. Their Alliance Energy business offers a full range of products and services, such as construction and operation of small hydroelectric Power Plants (HPPs); Construction and operation of medium and large HPPs and general consulting services in energy sector. Currently they are a third way through their 2MW HPP project which will be a total of a $2.8 million USD investment over 5 years.
AGH represents a firm that has identified the market opportunity, has taken on the risk, developed appropriate business units indicative of Georgia’s economic trajectory and has established a strong base of initial partners. $25 million USD in leverage is requested to develop and grow their business into a non-banking financial market leader.
If you are looking for corroboration in regards to the soundness of these business units than simply look towards the ministerial interviews in this very report. If you are looking for credibility in their business model look no further than their website which denotes all the key partners or better yet, why not contact them direct for more information:
Contact
Tatia Khubulava
+995 32 242 4181
www.agh.ge