Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazmunaigas profit to drop

SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — If oil prices remain steady at roughly $50/barrel, Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company, Kazmunaigas will post a profit of 75b tenge ($279m) in 2015, Sauat Mynbayev, the company chairman, told the Interfax news agency. In 2014, the company posted a profit of nearly 200b tenge ($743m at the current rate). Mr Mynbayev said the government’s decision to let the tenge float free against the dollar has helped contain losses.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Kazakhstan to subsidise industries

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government said it would subsidise industrial companies that needed to increase salaries to match rising inflation and the falling value of the tenge. The Kazakh government has struggled to manage the economy during difficult economic times.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

TeliaSonera wants to quit Central Asia and the South Caucasus

ALMATY, SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dogged by various corruption allegations against its businesses in Central Asia, Swedish-based TeliaSonera said it wanted to quit the Eurasian telecoms market to focus on European operations.

In the medium-term, TeliaSonera’s assets in the growing mobile telecoms markets of Central Asia and South Caucasus region could represent an attractive business for companies looking to enter the market. TeliaSonera owns stakes in telecoms companies in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These are Azercell, Geo-cell, KcellP, Tcell and Ucell.

In most of these countries, TeliaSonera has been under the spotlight for its opaque corporate governance, an issue that its CEO, Johan Dennelind, referenced.

“Thanks to two years of hard work to improve the Eurasian operations, not least from a corporate governance and sustainability perspective, we now have better and more well-managed companies which we believe others can successfully develop further,” a TeliaSonera press release quoted him as saying.

TeliaSonera appointed Mr Dennelind as CEO in 2013 after a corruption probe into its operations in Uzbekistan forced the previous CEO and most of the directors to resign.

In the past two years, Swedish prosecutors have opened investigations into alleged bribes that the company paid to secure access to mobile networks and licences in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. More recently, in May 2015, a Swedish newspaper reported on another possible case of bribery in Azerbaijan.

In 2013, TeliaSonera sacked Tero Kivisaari, a senior executive, for paying $350m a few years earlier to a Gibraltar company linked to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, in exchange for a 3G licence. TeliaSonera owns 94% of Ucell, an Uzbekistan-based, mobile operator.

A 2013 deal that saw Kcell, in which TeliaSonera owns a 62% stake, pay Kazakh PM Karim Massimov $200m for network access has also come under scrutiny.

Analysts said that the pressure had been building on TeliaSonera and that they had been expecting TeliaSonera to cut its losses in its Eurasia division for some time.

Bakytzhan Khochshanov, an analyst at Halyk Finance, said that he thought a Russian or Turkish telecoms company might be interested in buying TeliaSonera’s stakes.

“Potential buyers are likely to be the largest ones, and among them either Megafon or MTS, as Vimpelcom already has an exposure to Kazakhstan’s market with its Beeline brand,” he said.

“Among the other potential bidders could also be Turkish operators, with Turkcell already having a stake in Kcell through Fintur Holding.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Nostrum pressures Tethys

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Nostrum Oil & Gas said in a statement that a proposed $37.5m takeover offer of Tethys Petroleum, a Central Asia-focused oil company, has not yet been accepted. Nostrum said some of Tethys’ Board expectations were unrealistic as “the underlying financial position of Tethys has continued to deteriorate.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Xodus wins Kazakh contracts

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tengizchevroil consortium developing oil fields in west Kazakhstan awarded a “significant” contract to Scotland-based engineering company Xodus. Xodus tests the strength of rigs and other upstream oil structures using sound waves.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Nazarbayev calls Kazakhstan land of Great Steppe

SEPT. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev used the 550th anniversary celebrations of the Kazakh khanate to espouse on one of his favourite topics — nation building. At the celebrations, he called on the country to be known as the Land of the Great Steppe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

ADB boosts Kazakh SMEs

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Damu, a state-owned fund that helps SMEs in Kazakhstan, said it is negotiating on behalf of local businesses for a better interest rate on loans from the Asian Development Bank. The ADB has made $500m worth of loans available to SMEs in Kazakhstan since 2010. The Damu fund wants a $228m tranche made available to SMEs with an interest rate of 14% or below.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

EBRD to loan for buses in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering a $65m loan to Astana LRT to buy 200 modern buses, media reported. Astana, the Kazakh capital, has been growing , putting major pressure on its public transport systems.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Coal production drops in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 14 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Coal production in Kazakhstan dropped by 6.7% in the first eight months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, data released by the Eurasian Economic Commission showed.

The Eurasian Economic Commission is the administrative arm of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union is a trade bloc set up by the Kremlin that includes Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.

The data showed a fairly pronounced slump in coal production in Kazakhstan, while the other countries maintained output.

The slump in Kazakhstan’s production may be yet another indicator of the impact of the economic recession. Kazakhstan relies heavily on coal to fire many of its larger industrial centres.

If order books are down, demand for coal and production would also slump.

Kazakh Mangistau receives inflow of migrants

SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Almaty and the oil-rich region of Mangistau in the west of the country are the only regions in Kazakhstan receiving a significant inflow of people looking for work, data published on the ranking.kz website reported. The data also showed that most of the people moving to these areas settled in villages rather than cities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)