Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

India wants to boost cotton imports from Kazakhstan

APRIL 20/21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in the south Kazakh city of Shymkent, Kazakh and Indian officials pledged to increase cooperation in the cotton trade. Indian businessmen said that they wanted to increase the supply of cotton from Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has been trying to develop its cotton sector over the past few years in a drive to move away from rely too heavily on the oil and gas sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Currencies: Kazakh tenge and Azerbaijani manat

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APRIL 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Softer oil prices have pushed down the value of the Kazakh tenge and the Azerbaijani manat. The tenge is now trading at 313.8/$1, its lowest value since March and the manat is trading at 1.665/$1, a two week low.

Oil has come off a high on April 11 of $56.23/barrel to be trading at around the $51/barrel mark. The main driver of the dip in oil prices is geopolitical concerns over US intervention in Syria and the spike in tension around the Korean peninsular. Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are price takers and will have to settle for whatever the geopolitical machinations hand them.

On the equities front, it has been a very good fortnight for TBC Bank. It has ragreed a $100m loan from the EBRD to implement the so- called Deep and Comprehensive Trade Agreement with the EU. This is designed to boost trade between Georgia and the EU. TBC Bank’s share price has risen by around 20% this year and analysts are positive.

“Looking ahead, TBC Bank is expected to record a rise in its bottom line of 8% this year, followed by further growth of 14% next year,” said share analyst The Motley Fool. “When combined with its relatively low P/E ratio, this puts it on a PEG ratio of only 0.8. This suggests that more share price growth could be ahead for the company.”

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Kazakhstan to close Radiotochka

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APRIL 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radiotochka, one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Kazakhstan, will close because of a combination of financial and political pressure. Last year its editor, Bigeldy Gabdullin, was arrested for extorting bribes from officials. His deputy editor fled the country shortly afterwards.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)f

China agrees to buy 51% of car maker in Kazakhstan

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese investment company SMS agreed to buy a 51% stake in Kazakh car-maker Allur, the company said in a press release. The press release didn’t say how much SMS was going to pay for its stake or when the transaction would take place. Allur is one of the biggest car- makers in Kazakhstan and owns stakes in the SaryarkaAvtoProm and Agromash factories. Kazakhstan’s car manufacturing sector has been hard hit by the economic slowdown.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)f

Floods hit the north Kazakhstan

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APRIL 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Heavy rainfall triggered floods in north and central Kazakhstan, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. Media reports said that 5,000 people have been evacuated to high ground. The worst hit area was around the town of Atbasar, 260km north of Astana.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

New car sales fall in Kazakhstan

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APRIL 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car manufacturers in Kazakhstan sold 7,569 new cars in the first quarter of the year, a drop of 28.2% on the same period in 2016, Kazakhstan’s Union of Automotive Industry Enterprises, KazAvtoProm, said in a press release. The data will be a blow to the government which has been saying that a sharp economic downturn since mid-2014 has now been reversed.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

Turkmen president travels to Kazakhstan

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APRIL 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymkuhamedov travelled to Astana to meet with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and sign a deal which they said marked the end of any border disputes between the two neighbours. Both sides said that the deal meant that the borders would now be fixed.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

Kazakh state energy producer to boost investments

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a clear sign of renewed confidence that oil prices will stay at around $50-55/barrel, KMG EP, the London-listed division of the Kazakh state energy producer Kazmunaigas said that it was going to raise its capital expenditure by 12% to 133b tenge ($369m). The company said that the extra investment would be used to improve the efficiency of existing projects.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

Kookmin sells 42% stake in Kazakhstan’s CenterCredit

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ALMATY, APRIL 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s Kookmin Bank sold its remaining 41.93% stake in Bank CenterCredit to Bakhytbek Baiseitov’s Tsenabank, bringing to an end its unhappy nine year foray into the Kazakh banking sector.

Kookmin’s retreat from Kazakhstan also highlights just how foreign banks have struggled in the Kazakh banking sector. The 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis inflated Kazakh banks’ bad debt portfolios turning what had looked like an attractive market to foreign investors into a headache virtually overnight.

A short note released on the Kazakh Stock Exchange by Center- Credit didn’t give much way accept to confirm the sale. Earlier this year, Tsenabank said it would buy up all of Kookmin Bank’s stake. In March it also confirmed that Mr Baiseitov, one of Kazakhstan’s richest people, had bought a 10% stake from the IFC, part of the World Bank. The IFC had always intended to sell its stake, bought in 2010, by 2017.

There was no statement from Kookmin which has been looking to sell its stake in CenterCredit almost as soon as it bought it.

Kookmin’s timing was initially poor. It bought a 30% stake in CenterCredit from Mr Baiseitov, who set up the bank, in March 2008 for $500m. By August 2008 the Global Financial Crisis had virtually wiped out its investment. The devaluation of the Kazakh tenge in 2015 also hit the bank, forcing Kookmin to write- down its value again. The 2008 deal to buy into CenterCredit had been part of a now globalisation push by Kookmin. It forced the resignation in 2010 of then-CEO Kang Chung-won.

Other foreign banks which have invested in Kazakhstan only to pull out a few years later include Britain’s HSBC and Italy’s Unicredit.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

Kazakh court cuts journalist’s sentence

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APRIL 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The former head of Kazakhstan’s journalist union, Seitqazy Mataev, has had his sentence for embezzlement and tax evasion cut to 2 years and 8 months from the 6 years he was given in October. Media reports said that the sentence cut was granted to Mataev in December in a presidential amnesty.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)