Owners of 91% of Rustavi 2 shares, Levan and Gia Karamanishivli have realesed a statement explaining the details of transfer of 51% of TV Sakartvelo shares to Rustavi 2 Broadcasting Company staff.

The statement reads as follows:

"We respond to today"s statement of Nika Gvaramia.

"We remind the public that our original proposal envisaged the transfer of shares to the whole staff of Rustavi 2 TV. In response, the company"s managing director, blamed us that our offer was a fiction, and voiced a sort of ultimatum.

"In order to dispel unfounded suspicions, we have expressed our willingness to pass over to our staff 51% of shares and defne the details of handing over the shares with participation of all employeesof the company in compliance with the principles of openness and fairness .

"Gvaramia today voiced a new requirement that an unidentified intermediary Ltd. should be created which would engage in the negotiations instead of the company`s staff. It was said that this company may have 20-30 or 50 founders (ie, maximum of 5% of the e station`s current employees), there were strange hints that some of the employees may adhere to the obscure "other side". Division of the team into parties in the conditions of unprecedented external pressure is unreasonable and harmful.

"We want everyone to understand - such a scheme is the shortest way to ensure that the decision about Rustavi 2`s present and future may be taken by a small group and not the entire staff which has never been the aim of the our initiative and it is contrary to the interests of both the station and the majority of its employees .

"Finally, we would like to note that in the conditions of a proper financial management and strict control of costs, it is realistic to make the company profitable and distribute dividends. Therefore, the statement made by the Director-General today that the company will never distribute dividends is unacceptable".