Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakh and Azeri VTB change directors

MARCH 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Azeri and Kazakh subsidiaries of Russian bank VTB changed their directors. In Azerbaijan, Vugar Ismayilov left his post of deputy chairman after seven years. In Kazakhstan, Mikhail Oseyevski substituted Mikhail Yakunin as chairman after Mr Yakunin left the bank to join the Russian National Commercial Bank, formerly owned by the government of Crimea, now property of the Russian government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakh election looms

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhs prepared to vote in a parliamentary election on Sunday, brought forward by a year after parliament said it had achieved its remit early. The election is expected to be a straightforward affair with the ruling Nur Otan party, which won 82% of the vote at the last election in 2012, winning easily again.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Gebrueder enters Kazakh market

MARCH 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Austrian logistics company Gebrueder Weiss said it had bought two subsidiaries of Germany’s Brockmueller Spedition in Almaty, entering the Kazakh market for the first time. The company said its new operations in southern Kazakhstan will serve as a transport hub between China and Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Armenian economy expects low growth

MARCH 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank predicted that Armenia’s economy would grow at 2.5% this year, it’s lowest rate for five years. Last year, the World Bank said that Armenia’s economy grew by 3%. It said that the main problems facing Armenia were a recession in Russia and structural weaknesses in its own economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Georgia’s city water chief quits

MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alexander Mikeladze, director of Batumi Water, resigned from his post after he became involved in a public scandal. Mr Mikeladze is accused of having abused his position of director of the water distribution company. He allegedly cut off the water supply to a restaurant that failed to provide him the table he wanted. The accusation against Mr Mikeladze comes at a complicated time for worker-management relations in Georgia. With economic conditions worsening, Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili has been talking up the need for harmony.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Stock market: Central Asia Metals

MARCH 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-based Central Asia Metals has performed well in the past weeks, after its stock price dipped to 124p on January 20, its lowest level since August 2013.

The stock had suffered from poor market conditions for commodities, but it picked up since it published an upbeat outlook for 2016, after it received government approval at the end of 2015 for the expansion of its Kounrad project in central Kazakhstan.

Analysts, however, remain cautious on the performance of the stock.

Peter Mallin-Jones, mining analyst at Peel Hunt which is a London based brokerage focused on small and medium sized companies, told The Bulletin that his downgraded share target price still held.

“The upward trend is in line with the general moves in the mining sector. KAZ Minerals is also showing a similar trend in the London Stock Exchange,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Georgian court sentences IS recruiter

MARCH 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia sentenced a man to 14 years in prison for recruiting men to join the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq. Three other men were imprisoned for trying to join IS. Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, which has strong ethnic and cultural links with Chechnya which it borders, has become an important recruiting ground for IS.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Georgian wine exports increase

MARCH 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Imports of Georgian wine to Russia more than doubled in the first two months of the years compared to the same period in 2015, Georgia’s national wine agency reported. Wine is both an important export for Georgia and also an important cultural identifier. Russia recently lifted a ban on the import of Georgian wine.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

BP plans platform closures in Azerbaijan

MARCH 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP plans to close oil production at the West Azeri and Guneshli platforms later this year for routine maintenance work, media reported quoting the company’s head in Azerbaijan. The platforms are part of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli complex which forms the mainstay of Azerbaijan’s oil output. Closing production at the two platforms will dent output.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Armenian airline makes maiden flight

MARCH 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia, a new low-cost airline, will make its maiden flight from Yerevan to Tel Aviv on April 21, media reported quoting Robert Hovhannisyan, one of the airlines shareholders. Speculation has been growing in Armenia about whether the low-cost airline will get off the ground. It biggest shareholder is Tamaz Gaiashvili, the founder of the Georgian Airzena airline.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)