TBILISI, DFWatch – The Georgian opposition billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili sells his development assets in Russia for USD 982.5 million.

Ivanishvili, who leads the Georgian Dream coalition, says that he has already sold part of his property in Russia, and the rest is still to be sold. But he hopes that by the end of May, he will have sold all his assets in Russia. In addition, he notes that he ‘honestly doesn’t know who have become owners of his property.’

“I’ve already sold part of the property, part still remains. I think agricultural sector remains, on which yet there is no contractor. The rest is nearly solved. I think by the end of May, everything will be sold.”

He said this after it became known that his shares in Russia started being sold. Forbes Magazine reported that by Ivanishvili’s property in 2012 is valued to USD 6.4 billion.

Already in October 2011, when he decided to enter politics, Ivanishvili talked about his plans to sell his assets in Russia. Since then, the government has been repeating the claim that because he owns property in Russia, it’s dangerous to let him into Georgian politics.

In December Ivanishvili said his property in Russia consists of businesses in agriculture, real estate and construction. He also holds a share in Russian Gazprom. He said that his one percent share in Gazprom has decreased and the rest of the shares will be sold.

On May 10, the web page of the Russian Credit Bank, which is one of Russia’s largest investment banks, published information that the bank had been sold.

According to this information, the bank was purchased by a group of individual businessmen from the company Unikor, which manages Ivanishvili’s assets. It was purchased for USD 352 million. This deal will be finalized September 1, according to the plan.

On May 12, Russian media reported that Bidzina Ivanishvili had sold the pharmacy chain Doktor Stoletov, which has 414 outlets in eleven regions of Russia.

Russian media reports that Unikor group, which manages Ivanishvili’s assets, sold pharmacy chain to Imperia Pharma for USD 60-70 million.

On Thursday, the Russian edition of Forbes reported that the Russian Bin Group is buying development assets of Premium Class in the center of Moscow from Ivanishvili for USD 982.5 million. The deal will end will be finalized around August 15. Bin Group has already signed an agreement with Unikor Company.

The agreement with Bin Group was signed by Mikhail Shishkhanov, president of BinBank. He is listed as number 179 on the list of Russia’s 200 richest businessmen with a reported wealth of USD 550 million.