Tag Archives: business

Stock market: KAZ Minerals, Nostrum, KEGOC

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The biggest mover in the stock markets for Central Asia and the South Caucasus was London-listed KAZ Minerals, which gained a staggering 65% since the beginning of October at 145p on Friday. Its performance was in line with most commodity producers which were hit by the Glencore slump last week.

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas was stable this week at around 524 pence, after rebounding from a sharp drop last week. Its failed takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum affected its performance in the market.

Polyus Gold continued its roller- coaster to end the week at 198 pence. Polyus has shown a volatility of +/- 3% over the past three weeks.

In local markets, KEGOC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity company became one of the strongest players in KASE, gaining over 25% in the past three weeks. However, because its stocks are denominated in tenge, the value of its assets has not fared as well as it seems. Speculative moves behind the multi-million dollar transactions of the past weeks have turned KEGOC into an appealing investment in a market marred with worsening assets.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Wood Group to supply facilities at Kazakh oil field

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Scotland-based Wood Group won a service contract to supply an automated system for crude storage facilities at the Tengiz oil field in Western Kazakhstan. It said the automated system would increase storage capacity. Bechtel, a US-based engineering company, signed the multimillion dollar deal with Wood Group.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Armenia to shut down nuclear power

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power plant will shut down in two stages in 2017-2018 as part of a planned modernisation of the plant, the Armenian government said. The ministry of energy had planned one 6- month long closure in 2017, but pressure on electricity prices have forced the government to split the period into two phases.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Iran-Azerbaijan trade rises

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Trade between Azerbaijan and Iran is growing, media quoted a senior official in its eastern province as saying, and it will continue to increase as Iran strengthens ties with Russia. Iran views Azerbaijan, increasingly, as a gateway to Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Japan to explore Kazakhstan

OCT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation said it will explore Kazakhstan for mineral deposits. Preliminary investigations will be conducted, jointly with Kazakhstan’s state-owned company Kazgeologiya, in 2016. Japan has bought large amounts of oil from Kazakhstan this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Lada builds new model in Kazakhstan

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ will build two new models of its Lada brand in Kazakhstan starting in 2017. AvtoVAZ said its plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, east Kazakhstan, will receive investments for around $840m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Telenor wants out Uzbek market

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Telenor, a Norwegian telecoms firm, said it is ready to sell its stake in Vimpelcom, a Russian company that also operates in Central Asia under the Beeline brand (Oct. 5). Vimpelcom is under investigation in the US and in the Netherlands for allegedly paying a bribe to enter the Uzbek market.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Business comment: Bailing out savers

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Banks in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are bracing themselves for tough times ahead. The currency crisis that has hit the region has, it feels, still a long way to run. Central Banks in both countries have pledged to help commercial banks in the short term to prevent falls in the values of the tenge and som from spiraling into panic and a run on the banks.

This is sensible.

The Kazakh Central Bank said it would compensate savings accounts in tenge that have so far lost 46% in US dollar terms after the regulator moved to a free-float policy. Across the border, in Bishkek, the Central Bank laid out new measures to help customers pay their dollar- denominated mortgages, which have become more expensive as the som lost value.

When people lose confidence in their currency, as is happening across Central Asia and the South

Caucasus, Central Banks intervene. In both countries, new policies were adopted to limit the amount of loans in foreign currencies, to ensure stability in the market.

These short-term measures, however, may have serious repercussions down the road. Bailouts can have an adverse effect on these countries’ sovereign ratings and they could, in any case, be insufficient to reverse the economic downturn.

Let’s see how these policies fair against a falling currency market.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

China builds power plant in Tajikistan

OCT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NORINCO International, a Chinese engineering contractor, will build a coal-fired power plant in the Basht district, about 100km to the east of Dushanbe, helping the country increase its power generation capacity. The new plant will have a 350MW capacity. TBEA, another Chinese company, is currently building a similar power plant in Dushanbe, highlighting China’s growing role in Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Tajikistan arrests bank chief

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -Tajik authorities arrested Samikhon Kurbonov, the former chairman of Fononbonk, because of his family ties to Saidumar Khusaini, a high- ranking member of the now banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). Last week, Tajikistan’s Central Bank also placed Fononbonk under receivership.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)