Uzbekistan announced Friday it plans to sell government shares in a local company that bottles Coca-Cola and was once viewed as a cash cow for the former ruling family. The government agency responsible for managing the ex-Soviet state's assets said in a statement that potential investors should express an interest in purchasing the shares before 1800 local time (1300 GMT) on December 31. Coca-Cola Ichimligi Uzbekiston's revenues grew 46 percent in 2019, according to the statement, which noted that Rothschild & Co would be retained as financial consultants for the future sale. Uzbekistan currently holds a 57.1 percent stake in Coca-Cola Ichimligi Uzbekiston, which controls nearly half of the local market for non-alcoholic drinks. The minority stake is held by The Coca-Cola Export Corporation. For years the local Coca-Cola bottling business was seen as benefiting Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of former leader Islam Karimov, who died in 2016. Karimova, 48, was placed under house arrest amid family infighting while her father was still alive and is now serving jail time for money laundering and extortion. The one-time pop star and perfume designer is also the main target of a multi-year, multi-country investigation into bribes allegedly paid by foreign telecoms companies for access to the Uzbek market. Karimov's successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev has kept the authoritarian regime in tact while breaking with many of his one-time mentor's statist economic policies. An October decree issued by Mirziyoyev called on the government to prepare 2,000 state assets for the latest round of privatisation. Earlier this year the government announced that it had sold a controlling stake in a famous Soviet-era hotel in the capital Tashkent to a firm based in Singapore for $23.2 million. sk-cr/jbr/cdw