Category Archives: Uncategorised

Tele2 and Kazakhstan’s Altel team up to establish new mobile company

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company Tele2 said it will create a joint venture with Kazakhstan’s Altel to grab market share and monopolise access to 4G technology, a bold move in a region where corruption scandals have scarred rival Nordic companies.

Tele2 Kazakhstan is the third-largest operator in the country, after TeliaSonera’s Kcell and VimpelCom’s Beeline (Norwegian Telenor owns a 33% stake in VimpelCom). Altel is a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazakhtelecom and the only operator with a 4G licence in the country.

Tele2’s CEO, Alison Kirkby, said that the deal will give the company a major lift and position it to attract more customers.

“This transaction will enable our customers to gain access to Altel’s 4G network and to benefit from its accelerated rollout across Kazakhstan,” Ms Kirkby said of the joint venture.

In the past two months, TeliaSonera and Telenor have said they want to sell off their assets in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after US and Dutch authorities started investigations into corruption allegations in Uzbekistan. Tele2 have, possibly, spotted an opportunity and decided to push to form a joint venture with Altel.

But it will be tough, as price battles have pushed down profit margins in the telecoms sector in the past two years. In July, former Tele2 CEO Mats Granryd said: “Kazakhstan is turning into a real bloodbath when it comes to pricing.”

When the joint venture is formalised in 2016, Tele2 will own a 49% stake and will also be the company’s operator. Pietari Kivikko, Tele2 Kazakhstan’s chairman, will serve as the top manager in the new joint venture.

The depreciation of the tenge in August, after the Central Bank cut its US dollar peg, has hit profits at telecoms companies which earn tenge but accrue costs in foreign currencies.

This year, Tele2 Kazakhstan has fared better than the competition. In Q3, it increased its revenue by 34% compared to last year and in the first nine months of 2015, it increased its customer base by 33% to over 4m users.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Business comment: Debt to GDP in Kyrgyzstan

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan has the highest debt-to- GDP ratio of any country in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, spurring a heated debate this week in the Kyrgyz parliament.

MPs questioned Temir Sariyev, seeking endorsement to continue his job as PM, on the sustainability of Kyrgyzstan’s debt which reached $3.4b in November.

Oil and gas importers, like Kyrgyzstan, typically show higher level of debt compared to energy- rich countries. Kyrgyzstan has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 53% debt ratio.

And this is set to continue in the increasingly tight economic climate which has dragged down essential remittances from Russia to Kyrgyzstan. The IMF said Kyrgyzstan’s debt-to-GDP ratio would reach 60% in 2015 and 62% in 2016.

Kyrgyz deputies said they were worried the country might default under these circumstances.

Mr Sariyev dismissed the rumours of default indicating that other countries have far worse debt levels and do not default. According to Mr Sariyev debt is important for the Kyrgyz economy, financing important infrastructure projects.

Still, Kyrgyzstan shows the worst fiscal balance and debt ratios in the region. Armenia, also an energy importer, has a 41% debt ratio, and Georgia 38%, according to the IMF. Tajikistan posted a debt-GDP level of just 28% in 2014, but it will grow to almost 33% in 2015, a direct consequence of the regional economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kazakh parliament passes mortgage bill

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh parliament passed a bill which will ban mortgages being given in US dollars unless the applicant earns his or her salary in US dollars. The aim of the bill, which needs to be signed by Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev before becoming law, is to reduce households exposure to potential bad debt and to give the ailing tenge currency a boost.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Petronas shows interest in pumping Azerbaijani gas

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Malaysia’s energy company Petronas said it is interested in buying stakes in the TANAP and TAP pipelines pumping gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. In April, Petronas bought Statoil’s 15.5% stake inAzerbaijan’s main gas field, Shah Deniz.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Tajik-Japanese joint venture to build factory

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Avvalin, a joint-venture between Japan’s Cokey Systems and the Tajik government, wants to build a factory to produce liquorice root-based medicines. Tajikistan produces liquorice in the south-west of the country. The Tajik government owns 51% of Avvalin. Cokey owns 49%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kazakh car imports halve

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Jan.-Aug. 2015, Kazakhstan imported 54,000 cars, roughly half the amount of cars imported during the same period last year. Russia accounted for 85% of the car import market. Between January and August, the Kazakh tenge was overvalued against the rouble, making imports from Russia cheap. The Kazakh Central Bank effectively devalued the tenge in August.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Smuggled petroleum flows into Kyrgyzstan

OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The amount of smuggled petroleum products flowing into Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan has increased enormously since the country joined the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union in August, Melis Turgunbayev, director of state-owned energy company Kyrgyzneftegaz, said. He said the flood of smuggled goods had halved the trade in legally imported petroleum products.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

US blocks Korea- Uzbekistan fight jet deal

OCT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US government has blocked Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) , a South Korean firm, from selling a dozen T-50 Golden Eagle training fighter jets to Uzbekistan for $400m, the Korea Times newspaper reported.

Washington was reportedly concerned that technology used in T50s, which was co-developed by KAI and the US’ Lockheed Martin a decade ago, could be handed over to Russia.

“KAI has been in negotiations with the Uzbek government to export the supersonic trainers, but the US government is opposing the deal, citing possible technology leakage and diplomatic policy,” the Korea Times source said.

Uzbekistan is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation but not the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russia-dominated military bloc of former Soviet countries.

Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the US’ worries were understandable.

“The decision has nothing to do with Uzbekistan. But Uzbekistan is a country in the Russian sphere of influence,” he was quoted as saying.

If confirmed, the ban on the sale of the T-50s to Tashkent could overshadow a planned visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Samarkand on Nov. 1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR signs contract with France’s Axens

OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR signed a contract with French industrial group Axens to build new units at the Heydar Aliyev refinery near Baku. This is part of a $16.5b project to modernise the Baku refinery and boost production of petroleum products. Axens will build new diesel fuel and gas hydro-treating units at the refinery.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kazakh miner to hit target

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed miner KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, said it is on track to meet its production targets for 2015, despite a slight fall in production during the first nine months of the year. KAZ Minerals also said that it had increased its net debt by 18.8% to $1.9b in Q3. The company may be bullish on output at its copper and zinc mines in Kazakhstan but it has been hit by a fall in commodity prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)