The Hualing Free Industrial Zone in Kutaisi, Georgia. [File photo]

A Chinese private company has signed a preliminary agreement on the acquisition of the Bank Republic in Georgia on Tuesday, the Chinese company's spokesperson confirmed.

After the purchase, the Xinjiang Hualing Industry & Trade (Group) Co. Ltd. will merge the bank with the Basis Bank, which itpurchased in Georgia in 2012, to create a new universal bank, said Wang Shengxin, head of the Hualing Group's Georgian arm.

The new bank is expected to be the third largest in Georgia.

After the merger and acquisition, the Hualing Group will hold the majority of the new bank's shares, while the Societe Generale Group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the two previous majorowners of the Bank Republic, will hold 8 percent and 3.9 percent of the shares of the newbank.

Established in 1988 in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Hualing Group is a private conglomerate active in a diversity of sectors, such as commercial services, foreign trade, livestock husbandry and banking.

In 2012, the Hualing Group purchased more than 90 percent stake in Basis Bank with US$98 million and later acquired ownership. In 2014, it became the largest foreign investor in Georgia with a total investment of nearly US$500 million. In 2015, the Hualing Free Industrial Zone in Kutaisi, Georgia, was put into operation.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce, China is Georgia's third-largest trading partner globally and second-largest source of imports.

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