Tag Archives: banking

Kazakh legal cases unravel in London

MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — London is the global centre of dispute resolution.

Its courts, solicitors, barristers and the law itself are respected around the world attracting businesses and individuals who need to settle commercial disputes.

Now, a study of documents over the past five years has shown that Kazakhstan-focused legal disputes generated the second highest number of cases, the London-based Independent newspaper reported. Dispute resolution in London can be used as a rough gauge of a country’s economic activity.

According to the report, only the United States has been the focus of so many litigation issues.

Of the 705 litigation cases covered since 2008 by the Commercial Court, the business dispute arm of the High Court in London, 86 related to Kazakhstan. Russia, which has had more high-profile and expensive cases, recorded 75 cases.

The biggest Kazakhstan-oriented case to pass through the British courts in the past five years was the dispute involving Mukhtar Ablyazov who was accused of defrauding BTA Bank, where he had been chairman, of billions of dollars.

Ablyazov is currently on the run, having been charged with perjury last year. Earlier this year, the High court ordered Ablyazov to re-pay $2b.

According to the Independent’s report, the BTA/Ablyazov dispute case generated 11 individual cases, employing at least 50 solicitors.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

UniCredit sells ATF Bank in Kazakhstan

MAY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deal has been rolling around in and out of public view for most of the year but it now looks as if it’s finally been wrapped up.

KazNitrogenGaz, an investment group officially owned by Galimzhan Yesenov, has bought ATF Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest banks, for $500m from UniCredit, an Italian bank, media reported.

This is a lower figure than previously touted around.

It’s also telling because it’s about a quarter of the price that UniCredit paid for it in 2007.

When UniCredit bought ATF Bank, Kazakhstan’s economy was on the up and banks were, relatively casually, handing out loans to Kazakh consumers and businesses. When the global economy slowed and faltered in 2008, these loans went bad and Kazakh banks, including ATF Bank, took a large hit.

According to reports, 40 percent of ATF Bank’s loan portfolio is still regarded as non-performing.

With the Kazakh economy rebounding in the past five years, the government is preparing to sell off majority stakes in four banks it was forced to rescue from bankruptcy in 2009.

The buyers of the state’s stakes in these banks are wealthy Kazakhs and buying back ATF Bank from UniCredit could be an extension of that plan. The 31-year-old Mr Yesenov is relatively obscure but behind him is his powerful father-in-law, Akhmetzhan Yesimov. That is where the real power and drive for buying ATF Bank may lie.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

UniCredit bank sells Kazakh subsidiary

MAY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – After months of veiled negotiations, Italy’s UniCredit bank sold ATF Bank, its Kazakh subsidiary, for $500m. The buyer is the relatively unknown Galimzhan Yesenov, son-in-law of the mayor of Almaty.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

Ex-BTA director detained in Kazakhstan

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh police detained Yerlan Tatishev, a former director of BTA Bank which the government bailed out in 2009, on embezzlement charges, media reported. BTA Bank’s former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, is currently on the run having been found guilty of perjury by a British court.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Astana Finance restructures its debt

APRIL 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh finance company Astana Finance is looking for a new date to restructure its $2b debt after missing a previous deadline set on March 28, Reuters quoted managing director Daniyar Nurskenov as saying. Astana Finance, set up 13 years ago, defaulted on its debts in 2009 along with three other Kazakh banks.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

Azerbaijan’s offshore accounts

APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Documents obtained by the whistle-blower website the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists linked Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and his family to several offshore bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands. Opposition in Azerbaijan accuse Mr Aliyev of corruption. He, and his family, declined to comment.

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)

Chinese bank buys stake in Georgian bank

JULY 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Hualing group bought a 90% stake in the Georgia’s Basisbank from the EBRD and the bank’s founder, Zurab Tsikhistavi, the company said. Media reported that this is the first time a private Chinese bank had bought an overseas bank. The EBRD and Mr Tsikhistavi will both retain a 5% stake in Basisbank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 095, published on July 6 2012)

Bank of Georgia lists on London’s stock exchange

FEB. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Bank of Georgia, which holds a third of all retail deposits in Georgia, listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The Bank of Georgia is only the second international bank to list on LSE. It hopes to secure a place in the FTSE 250 soon.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 079, published on March 1 2012)

UK sentences Kazakh oligarch

FEB. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Britain sentenced Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former CEO of BTA Bank, to 22 months in jail for contempt of court. Ablyazov is accused of embezzling $5b. He fled to London in 2009, claiming political asylum, and has since used it as a base to finance Kazakh opposition groups.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 78, published on Feb. 23 2012)

Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank CEO resigns