Bera Ivanishvili, the son of former Prime Minister and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, decided to donate his equipment to State-financed Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB).

Bera made the decision after his Silk Factor Studio, owned by him, won the tender and was to be paid 372,000 GEL ($149,000) for renting the equipment to the GPB. This was followed by a negative outcry in some media outlets and society, shortly after this Bera released a statement, saying he decided to give the equipment to the broadcaster.

In his Facebook post, the son of the billionaire stated that some people started speculating when his studio won the tender.

“I did not know anything about the tender and the equipment that was rented by the GPB. Getting material profit is not my aim. It turned out that we have equipment that my studio does not need but the GPB does, so I would like to grant it to the Public Broadcaster,” Bera’s Facebook post reads.

Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili is said to be the country's richest man. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which lists 500 richest persons of the planet, Ivanishvili takes 305th position with his $5.72 billion capital.

As for his son Bera, he is a French-born-Georgian singer, songwriter, international pop star, hip hop and R&B artist. He is a founder of Georgian Dream Studio (GDS).

The current Director General of GPB, Vasil Maghlaperidze, served as Deputy Director of Channel 9, a TV belonging to Ivanishvili; and after GD came to power, he was the producer of the program 2030 of Ivanishvili GDS TV. He was harshly criticized and accused of being the government’s favorable candidate during the GPB director’s elections in January 2017.

By Thea Morrison

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