We are showing remittances, which have been the, like, most reliable source of FX inflows even during the pandemic. In terms of exports, we had some surprises in our export diversification. Last year, share of China increased significantly and became second market for our goods export. This year, China's share increased to 16%, making it the first country and first market for our exports. We believe this was on the back of the Free Trade Agreement signed in 2018. We believe that further export diversification will increase resilience of our country towards some regional shocks. You can see also imports, which is increasing quite nicely and exceeding 2019 levels as well as tourism revenues.
According to some fresh October estimates, tourism revenues in October was 53% of 2019 levels. Here also we are looking at company turnovers, which are highly correlated to the monthly GDP estimate and fiscal expenditure, which is expansionary still compared to 2019 levels. Now let me move to the exchange rate development, which was another kind of surprise in our region as Georgian GEL is one of the top performing currency in our region since January 2020. GEL appreciated by 3.6% against the U.S. dollar year- to- date and by 8.6% compared to year- to- date lows.
From the external side, of course, robust FX inflows, which I have already talked, significantly affected the trends of the exchange rate movement. From the domestic side, we should mention tightened monetary policy as National Bank of Georgia increased the rates to curb the inflation expectations. Tight monetary policy will lead interest rate differential between local and foreign currency loans to rise. It of course affects foreign currency lending and supports FX liquidity. You can also see real effective exchange rates. Trend kind of reversed. It is on track to reach the long-term trend.
Also we think that the new regulation from National Bank of Georgia to support GEL de-dollarization will have its impact and do have its impact on the demand on gel. On the next slide, I want to talk a bit more about the inflation as it is hot topic, not for, well, not only for Georgia, but on a global level. Price pressures picking up faster than it was previously expected, as soaring energy prices as well as supply-side shortages along with increasing demand and high saving rates. There are different factors affecting global price pressures. First of all, we should mention soaring energy prices. Both gas and oil prices increased significantly.
In addition, with the semiconductor shortages of semiconductors, these are tiny chips that seem to have outsized impact on the global factories. During the lockdowns and after the lockdowns, demand for electronics increased sharply. It led prices on chips to increase significantly. Of course, as well as the gap between the order and receiving the chips increased, like on average it was 12-13 weeks from ordering to delivery. Now it increased to 20, more than 20 weeks. This creates shortages in the primary market, and of course it affects the prices on the secondary market. Another important factor for driving global inflation is food prices.
It is especially painful for emerging markets where food makes a large chunk of consumer basket. We should also mention wage pressures due to the economic activity and the high inflation expectations. Also in some markets we see labor shortages like in U.S., where people are resistant to get back to work after the lockdowns and stimulus checks. This will have additional pressure and less productivity gain. We will see the wage growth. One more factor to be highlighted is the new stringent tools for a greener future, which leads some polluting factories and mines to close, and also increased prices for carbon emission allowance and accelerates the shipping cost. All of these global factors affected our inflation.
Despite the exchange rate appreciation, imported inflation had the most significant contribution in our inflation. We had some domestic factors like the administrative prices when utility subsidies were included in inflation calculation. There is an expectation that from March when the utility subsidy impact will be eliminated, inflation should start to fall. If NBG will see inflation to be more persistent than expected, we should expect some more rate hike in order to preserve price stability as demand is very strong and no more counterbalances the supply side shortages. Lastly, I want to highlight our debt level.
Last year, in order to combat the crisis and prevent most vulnerable, the government attracted donor funding, which of course affected our debt level. In parallel with GDP contraction and exchange rate depreciation, debt level increased to 60% of gross domestic product. Now, according to the draft budget, debt level is expected to decline significantly by 8 percentage points. Also, according to our fiscal rule, overall balance is projected to 3% saving in 2023. This was a brief overview from my side. You can find more detailed info in our extended presentation, and of course, your questions will be much appreciated during the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you, Nino. Thank you. Let me continue. We'll take the questions in the end, including the macro. So let me talk about the Q3 results of our portfolio companies first. Looking at the aggregate revenue, we had a strong quarter. Our Q3 revenue went up nearly 25% year-over-year. We obviously compare to pre-pandemic levels as well. We want to make sure that we are well ahead of 2019 numbers as well. So the nearly 35% growth of the revenue we had in Q3 compared to 2019. The nine months results are also very solid. 26% growth for the nine months year-over-year and compared to 2019, 36% . EBITDA grew even faster. Aggregate EBITDA in Q3 grew 27% year-over-year.
Compared to 2019, it grew 32% to GEL 109 million. Looking at nine months numbers, we had a 45% growth of EBITDA in nine months year-o ver- year, and we had a 50% growth nearly to GEL 300 million, record high for nine months as well. If you're looking at our operating cash in terms of Q3 was also record high, GEL 137 million, which went up 24% and nearly 3x compared to 2019. However, nine months results is a little bit down, and this is due to result of the working capital needs. As the revenue is growing, we need more working capital.
We had, you know, 77% growth in operating cash, compared to 2019, in nine months, this year. Cash balance is GEL 392 million of our aggregate cash balance of our portfolio companies. 2.1x of the 2019 end of 2019 results. As you know, in 2020, we have embarked on cash accumulation strategy, which we grew pretty rapidly, the cash. In terms of the GCAP cash balance, also very strong, more than GEL 400 million of cash, which sits on our balance sheets. If you look at the portfolio companies on healthcare side, we had a very strong growth, 48%...
49% growth in nine months and 48% growth in quarterly results. GEL 205 million all-time high revenue in Q3 and nearly GEL 300 million revenue in nine months results. EBITDA also grew impressively. It was 78% up in nine months. Compared to 2019, it's up 36%. Q3 also very strong growth, 28% growth in Q3 and 45% growth against 2019 numbers. We had also very strong growth in pharmacy retail. So we had, as you see, we had nearly 30% growth in nine months results and 32% growth in quarter results against 2019.
EBITDA is also up in Q3 by nearly 25% year-over-year. You see that EBITDA for nine months is up 7% against last year, and it's up nearly 17% compared to 2019. Impressive growth for water utility business. In Q3, we had 58% growth year-over-year of our revenue and 35% growth against 2019. Also, strong growth we had in regards to nine months. We grew 54% revenue in nine months this year to GEL 152 million. EBITDA was also record high growth, record high in absolute amounts.
In nine months, we had GEL 97 million of EBITDA, which is up nearly 92%, year-over-year. It's impressive to see such a strong growth in nine months results as well as quarterly results. Water utility business is doing very well. On insurance side, we had a little decline in profitability due to the fact that last year there was COVID and there was not much for the claims. That resulted in a higher profit last year. This year we get back to kind of more normal situation when we have claims has accelerated compared to very low base last year that we had.
Renewable energy also it's a little bit weaker results what we have here because the generations are down compared to last year. Overall, strong results for generation. We see strong flows of the water and also wind results are very good in Q4, so we expect even more improved results in Q4 for renewable energy. Education is doing well. With the nine months, EBITDA is up 25%. On quarter result, there's not much to say because in Q3 is holidays, as you know, and we don't really accrue the revenues when there is no education, when there's times when students are having time off.
Now, on NAV per share development, I will start by highlighting that in Q3, we have a NAV up nearly 10% to GEL 59.77 . If you compare like pandemic levels, where it was at GEL 30 NAV per share when in March 2020, when pandemic hit, as you know, we have marked down NAV considerably, and it was at GEL 30 , and we nearly basically doubled this in year and a half. We're very glad with that results.
I also wanna mention about controllable NAV, which basically excludes the listed asset that we have, the Bank of Georgia. So in three months, its controllable NAV is up nearly 9%. If you compare to March 2020, when the pandemic hit basically, it's up 2.5x controllable NAV. Considerable growth in NAV. I will let Georgi to take over the NAV discussion and the valuation. In the end, I will wrap up, and we will open for the Q&A. Giorgi?
Sure. Thank you, Irakli. In terms of the NAV per share movements in the third quarter, our NAV per share was up by almost 10%. That's in Lari terms. In pound terms, it was up by 13.7%. To break out what made, you know, what contributed to the growth of this NAV per share, we had the Bank of Georgia share price increase during the quarter. That contributed to about 2.6% NAV per share growth. We also had the value creation that happened within our large portfolio companies contributing around 7%. In the investment stage, we had a decrease of 0.4%, largely driven by the renewable energy that Irakli discussed earlier. Another item that I would highlight was the buybacks.
As you know, we restarted the buybacks in the middle of August three months ago. During the third quarter, we bought back about 354,000 shares. All of which were canceled. That resulted in 0.4% increase to our NAV per share given the discount where we were buying these shares back. Since the quarter end, would also highlight that we have bought around 300 shares as well in the fourth quarter. That will be reflected in the fourth quarter. Moving on to the nine month results. Our NAV per share growth in the nine months in Lari terms stands at 24%.
In pound terms, it's 31% because of the Lari's appreciation against the dollar and British pound since the beginning of the year. Within that 24%, again, Bank of Georgia contributed 5% almost. Then about 19% came from the large portfolio companies' contribution. Investment and companies were at 1.4%, this is for the nine months, t hat reflects the value creation in both renewable energy and the education businesses. Then the buybacks contribution was 0.5%. Now over to the portfolio value developments in the third quarter. I would highlight that, as you know, in the first quarter and the third quarter, we performed valuations internally, which are based on the similar methodology that is deployed by our external valuation experts for the large portfolio companies.
In the third quarter, our portfolio value increased by more than GEL 200 million, where the key driver was Bank of Georgia in the listed assets. In the large portfolio companies was water utility where we had the GEL 72 million additional value created. It was healthcare business with GEL 38 million, and the retail pharmacy with another GEL 37 million . That's the third quarter. Over the nine months, the portfolio growth has been more than GEL 500 million , which you know, again, was spread across our you know listed asset Bank of Georgia and the large portfolio companies, predominantly.
The value creation was split as follows: healthcare business has delivered about 27% of the overall growth, which is GEL 152 million. The water utility is another GEL 149 million over the nine months, followed by, you know, Bank of Georgia value creation of GEL 110 million, and then retail pharmacy by GEL 65 million. If we look at, you know, top three assets, they contributed about 73% of the total portfolio value growth in the nine months. If we move to the next slide here, you see the snapshot of how the assets were valued within our third quarter financial statements and how the different, you know, assets are spread out within the overall asset portfolio.
65% of our portfolio is the large portfolio companies, 18% is listed Bank of Georgia, 10% is investment stage, and 7% is the other portfolio. In terms of the multiples, we continue to use, you know, Bank of Georgia London Stock Exchange reference price for the valuation. In the large portfolio companies, the similar methodology was consistently applied. You would see that in our healthcare services business, which is now our largest valued, largest private portfolio asset at GEL 724 million, was valued at 10.5x EBITDA. Water utility was second largest at GEL 620 million at 9x the EBITDA multiple, and then followed by retail healthcare pharmacy that was at 9.2x EBITDA, and it made up about 18% or GEL 618 million of the value. Over the next few slides, we will look at you know how the value was created in you know large portfolio companies that we have.
Starting with the healthcare services, the LTM EBITDA growth that you saw on the previous slides resulted in the increased enterprise value of GEL 43 million, which was then offset slightly by GEL 5 million net debt growth in this business, which was largely due to, as you know, the dividends that the GHG businesses paid during the quarter, which was about exactly actually GEL 25 million in the third quarter. As a result, our overall value creation in this business was GEL 38 million, excluding the dividends that were paid. Multiple remained broadly the same. It was at 10.5%, slightly down from 10.6% at the end of June.
On the next business we have, retail pharmacy business, where the multiple also decreased slightly from 9.3% to 9.2%. However, the EBITDA growth here, also very strong, resulted in the increased enterprise value by GEL 38 million. The business also had a very strong operating cash flow generation, and the increased cash balance resulted in the lower net debt, and therefore, the equity value growth was, you know, GEL 38 million plus GEL 4 million and about, you know, GEL 42.5 million , where the share attributable to GCAP was GEL 37.2 million . Overall, this business was valued at GEL 618 million in the third quarter.
We have the water utility business, where the very strong performance, both, in the EBITDA growth and in the operating cash flow generation, resulted in the aggregate value creation of almost GEL 72 million. Split, the operating performance growth in the EBITDA, which was more than 10%, resulted in GEL 45 million additional enterprise addition to the enterprise value. That was also combined with the net debt decreased by GEL 26 million. That's how the value breakdown came out, notwithstanding that the multiple went down from 9.3% to 9% during the quarter.
We have the P&C insurance, and within the P&C insurance business, we had another strong quarter, which resulted in the growth in the LTM net income from you know GEL 17 million-GEL 18 million. That additional GEL 1 million generated about GEL 10 million additional value in this business, while the multiple remained the same. Next we have you know our normal leverage and the liquidity profile overview. Again, our market value leverage, which is our portfolio and net debt divided by the portfolio value, continued to improve. Since the last quarter it improved by 200 basis points. Now it's down to 25.4%, well below you know our 30% targeted threshold for the LTV ratio. Our liquidity continues to be very strong.
We have $133 million, where about $83 million is in marketable securities and the cash, and then the remaining $51 million is the loans issued to our portfolio companies. Lastly, on the dividends, during the quarter, we received GEL 30 million worth of dividends. That was from the GHG businesses and the renewable energy. For that brings the overall nine months dividends to about GEL 45 million. Through the end of this year, we expect that our total dividends will be around GEL 75 million. That also includes dividends from Bank of Georgia that we received about two weeks ago in the amount of almost GEL 15 million. That's it from my perspective. Irakli, back to you.
Thank you, Giorgi. Thanks. To wrap up before we start the Q&A, just to summarize, we had a very robust operating performance, robust EBITDA generation, and growth, as well as net operating cash growth to all record high numbers in terms of revenue, EBITDA, and net operating cash. As a result, NAV grew nearly double digit in Q3. Impressive growth there as well. Dividend flow, as you see, as Giorgi was talking, has resumed. We received GEL 30 million dividends, and we expect GEL 75 million dividends this year.
We think that this, the negotiated term on the buyout of the minorities in retail pharmacy serves well in terms of the price, as well as continuous partnership with the minorities who are the key people managing our pharmacy business. We are glad that we have prolonged this relationship and partnership. Also, we continue to sell the subscale businesses, you know, $10 million of sale and so on. In terms of the outlook, as you saw that the Georgian government has recently introduced the Green Pass, which expects that the COVID vaccination to increase and hopefully all the restrictions will fall away.
The restrictions are not very strict, to be honest but still whatever remains, we will seek out opportunities to further improve operating performance of our portfolio companies. We will focus on our strategic priorities of realizing value of the large investment as well as selling the upscale businesses. Now, in terms of the Q&A, I will ask my colleagues. I will ask Shalva to tell us what questions we have. Please raise your hand to ask the question. As well as you can, you can write us into. You can send us the message. We have with me, as you know, Giorgi, our CFO. And we have Nick, CEO of GHG and my deputy. If we have questions on healthcare, Nick will be addressing those questions.
Thank you, Irakli. We have a question from Oleg Pankiv. What makes you not repurchase of more of your own shares to create the value that way? It has been trading at, unfortunately, discount for a very long time.
Yeah. Basically, we want to balance this. As you know, we are buying back the shares, not in very big quantities, but we are buying and we are creating the value that way. What we want to do is balance the leverage and balance the buyback. That would be kind of our way forward. We believe that a sudden decrease or sharp decrease in share price of GCAP during the pandemic was a result of the high leverage what we had on our HoldC o. That we don't want to happen again. Therefore we want to decrease our leverage ratio over time. That's why we are not as aggressive as we should be in a way. If we did not have the leverage, obviously we would be way more aggressive in buybacks.
Thank you, Irakli. The next question is from Georgy Todorov. How does the affordable education business segment compares to the premium segment margin-wise? Is the main revenue there coming from the government?
To start from the end, there is no revenue coming from the government. It's all private. Individuals are paying education for their children. It's unlike the GHG. Basically, government is not involved here at all in the revenue formation. In terms of the margin, affordable is around 35% EBITDA margin. Higher end is between 40% and 45% probably higher end, but it's about 40% and the affordable is around 35%. That's kind of the difference. Less infrastructure spend obviously than the high end. ROI at the end of the day is higher on affordable, and that's why we like it. That's why we wanna grow much faster in the affordable segment.
The next question is also from Georgi. I wonder where this fund management business fixed income fund fits within GCAP. Does this still deviate from GCAP's expertise?
Well, basically, our expertise is investing in Georgia. In order to invest in Georgia, you need to understand the macro of not only Georgia, but also the region. If you don't understand the regional macro, you won't understand for sure the Georgia macro. Because Georgia is a small open economy and regional developments have a big impact. We have a knowledge of the regional macro, and we thought, "Why not monetize that knowledge also?" Basically that's kind of a, in a way, it is our bread and butter to know the regional macro scene. That's where we are kind of monetizing it.
Yeah. Thank you. The next question is, any update on the strategic divestment of a portfolio firm that was discussed previously?
We don't have an update. I mean, if we have an update, it will be kind of a more of kind of a real update on the result of the development. We cannot really update you on the process, unfortunately.
Thank you. The next question is, why do you think the share buyback has not closed the discount yet?
I don't know. Maybe it's a question more to you. We are what we can do in the end of the day. We can operate our operating companies, grow, develop them, invest, buy back some things. In the end of the day, market is the owner of our stock. In the end, market is deciding what where the share price gonna trade. Too bad it's trading at a high discount. You know, I hope that will be fixed by the market again.
Thank you, Irakli. The next question is, which of the businesses do you think will be the most probable candidate for a trade sale realization?
Since we have announced our intention, we've been approached by a number of parties interested in different companies. To be honest, I don't know where we're gonna end up with selling which asset. Actually, it was good we did not prioritize which one to sell, because, you know, we want to see different opportunities and different interests for different assets vis-à-vis, you know, appetite of the investors to invest in different assets in the portfolio companies. I think it's very hard to say right now which one would realize, to be honest. As we sit right now and discussions we have with different parties on different assets, it's very difficult for me to say which one will be realized.
Thank you, Irakli. Just to remind you, we would really appreciate you to press the Raise Hand button and ask the question that way. The next question is from Steven Gorelik. What is the target level of leverage at the portfolio level after which you would be able to increase return of cash to shareholders?
We want to come back with you on this update. We are preparing for investor day, which we want to hold in a couple of months time, where we wanna give you a more comprehensive update on these leverage targets. We definitely want to decrease. At what level we'll come back to that. Right now, you know, we are at around 25%, which if you look at the kind of companies with our structure is quite high-end, you see. Higher end.
Thank you, Irakli. The next question is from Matthew. Regarding your fixed income business, you mentioned the desire to increase the fund size to GEL 250 million. From what region are the underlying investors and the main regions of assets under management distributed?
Right now, we have 50% institutional and 50% individuals. We think that wealth management clients basically would be interested in to invest in this fund. Because this is clearly a very attractive risk-reward proposition. Dollar income, we target a high single digit. The portfolio is mainly sovereign quasi-sovereign risks. We do take some local currency risks, but only on 20% of the total portfolio. Rates being close to zero right now for wealth management clients, we think it's an attractive asset class, especially with the track record which we have demonstrated so far. Let's see. We will keep you updated on the developments of the assets under management as we go, but we think it will be robust demand for the wealth management clients.
The next question is from Mark Webster. How would you view political stability in relation to recent regional elections?
I know we have I mean, the Georgian politics is noisy usually, so I mean, that's where we are. I wouldn't say it's business as usual, but that's kind of the Georgian politics. Right now we at least have a very clear results, and that's where we are.
Thank you. The next question is, can the economy keep growing so fast? The consumer seems to be doing well with strong wage growth, but at the same point, does very high inflation not put too much pressure on consumer and business sentiment?
You say the high growth, like, 12% growth we have now, because it won't continue next year, for sure. Are we going to have a 5% + growth next year? Most likely, yes. Maybe even high single digit, because it's still a low base. A lot is imported, so we hope that I mean, what we are projecting next year is to stabilize and really come off from the very high level where we are right now. I think important part is also the Lari is extremely stable, and this inflation is mainly a result of the past devaluations, what has happened, and it kind of, it's correcting now.
Now you know, we are pretty bullish on the economy growth, because we see a demand is to still pick up, because tourism has not recovered. I mean, tourist recovered like 40% of 29 Hemlands. Without this tourism growth, we are growing that fast. You know, next year, tourism will kick in for sure. I mean, the trucks are coming up, et cetera, even if vaccination rate is lower, may not grow like vaccination rate of the 80%. With infections rate and vaccination rate that we have and new drugs coming up, I think that next year the tourist going back to 100% is highly likely, and that would give you a big, big growth push.
Especially the Lari part of the strength standing on the back of that, it's very highly likely because of the tourists that does bring a lot of currency. A lot of effects. I mean, we are pretty bullish for growth next year. Double-digit, probably not. You know, 5% plus for sure. That's what we think. You know, we will update you on that as we will move closer to the year-end and the beginning of the next year.
Thank you, Irakli. The next question is, are there any Georgia Capital businesses that will be substantial beneficiaries of a pickup in tourism?
I think that we will have, I mean, across the board actually, we will have. We'll benefit. I think water utility business and energy business will be direct beneficiaries, as more energy will be consumed and more water will be needed, as more tourists will come. I think that also healthcare will benefit somehow, maybe not bigger quantities, but it will for sure. Beverage businesses will benefit, for sure, as more wine and beer will be consumed on holidays. I think that the COVID decelerating or coming down will affect a lot the education business.
Because what r ight now, what we have that new inflow of the lenders is not as robust as it used to be because, you know, it is at a very high risk of on and off. It's on and off basically in terms of the education, then you stop, et cetera. Parents think that why we should pay for the education when they all will be educated from the distance. I think as COVID grows, I think we expect a lot of demand for education to grow. Even with the COVID situation, it's not bad. It's actually good growth we have, but I think that it will be kind of boom, we think. We have a question about Ardentia Capital 100% owned by the CGEO. No, it's not owned by CGEO. We just borrowing the platform. It's just,
Thank you, Irakli. We have a couple of questions in the chat panel as well. How soon will debt be down far enough that a more realistic level of buybacks can begin?
That's why I already mentioned that we will be holding the investor day, where we will be kind of updating you on the developments.
Thank you. The next question is, can you please talk a little bit more about the property sold? Do you plan to sell more in the future?
Yeah.
How should we assess the overall cost of investment, so when we have internal management? That is the follow-up question as well.
More will be sold, especially on commercial real estate. We will be selling then some housing business as well. We have a strong demand. Actually, it's demand that's grown for the hotels which we have built. As you know, we are also divesting from the hotel business. We are not, to be honest, in a rush, because as tourist picks up, we think that this demand will be even stronger. We are kind of, in a way, literally in waiting mode on the hotel side.
Thank you. The next question is congratulations to your progress. Is your former goal, 100x equals to 100Y still realistic?
It is more realistic with the share price than it was before. Thanks for the question. I think that, you know, growing the 10 times the GBP 100 was more difficult than growing 10 times the GBP 6.
Yeah. Thank you. The next question is, how do you balance the risk of having mostly dollar-denominated debt at attractive rates versus the risk of currency devaluation?
Well, that's why we want to balance the debt and the buyback more carefully. We want to be more risk-averse on the debt side, to be honest. That kind of pandemic has showed that we have to be more watchful, especially when we have a foreign currency debt. That's kind of the main reason why we are not jumping into the big buybacks. We are balancing this moderate buybacks and the deleveraging.
Thank you. The next question is, how are management fees shared between CGEO and Aventura?
The performance fee is all CGEO's. Management fee, I think we pay some basis points. I don't remember what we pay, but we pay some basis points on this, on their services on the management side. It's not a lot.
Thank you. We don't have any open questions for now.
Thanks a lot for your interest, and your time within our earnings call. We are glad with the results. Wanna thank our management teams and our portfolio companies who have delivered great results, and we expect to do a very strong Q4 as well, and the full year. Stay tuned. Thanks again, and see you soon.