Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhs turn to credit cards

ALMATY, OCT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhs are spending more money on credit cards than ever before, new data showed, as they try to work out ways of pulling through a prolonged economic downturn.

Data from the rankings.kz website showed that the amount of credit cards in circulation in Kazakhstan had increased by 250% this year, a jump that suggests a large rise, too, in consumer debt.

Kuralai Abenova, a student in Almaty, was using her credit card to buy kit to renovate her apartment.

“It is very convenient rather than saving money. I can take a large sum of money and then pay little bits of it off regularly,” she said.

A crash in oil prices and a recession in Russia have hit Kazakhstan hard. The tenge currency has lost around 50% of its value since 2014 and inflation is rising.

Analysts have previously warned, though, that Kazakhs’ over-reliance on credit was a weakness that could undermine the economy. During the Global Economic Crisis of 2008/9, Kazakh banks were left with piles of bad debt. The risk is that similar amounts of bad debt are being accrued now.

And this loose attitude towards consumer debt is being replicated in high street shops which are encouraging shoppers to spend through cheap loans.

Saida Zhunusova, a financial consultant at the electronics store Technodom, said she had seen a large increase in the number of people using credit cards or asking directly for credit to pay for products.

“Many people cannot pay for the goods with cash and it is more convenient for them to pay only a part of the cost. Compared to 2014-2015 our sales have doubled because of loans,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh court fines Ural Oil and Gas

OCT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kazakhstan slapped a 2.1b tenge ($6.23m) fine on Ural Oil and Gas, a small energy company, for environmental damage. According to the prosecutor, the company had illegally disposed of its drilling waste at its operations in the Fedorovsky Bloc in Western Kazakhstan. State-owned Kazmunaigas (50%) and Hungary’s MOL (27.5%) are the two largest shareholders in Ural.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh electricity grid operator to pay dividend

OCT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – KEGOC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity grid operator, said it would pay a dividend of 24.93 tenge/share (7.5 cent) to its shareholders. The dividend, which measured 40% of the company’s first half net profit, was, proportionally, significantly lower than its dividend last year, when it redistributed all net profit among its shareholders.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh women’s rights leaders ambivalent on Dariga as future president

ALMATY, OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, may have been promoted to the Senate in a reshuffle last month, and is now being touted as a presidential successor, but many women appear ambivalent on supporting her candidacy.

The issue of who will succeed president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 76, as next president dominates Kazakh politics but Ms Nazarbayeva, 53, is a divisive figure and she fails to generate mass support among what should be her natural support base — women — as interviews with women’s rights advocates suggested.

Dina Smailova, who heads a group fighting domestic and sexual violence called ‘Don’t be silent’, said that while Ms Nazarbayeva had been supportive of their work, she may not be the right person to lead the country.

“I can view her candidacy as a woman who is educated, a modern woman but why not consider another candidate?” she said.

Women’s rights and domestic abuse moved into the mainstream in Kazakhstan this year after a well- known female TV presenter was badly beaten up by her husband at a petrol station outside Almaty.

According to the UN, 500 women are killed each year in Kazakhstan by their partners.

Aida Alzhanova, chair of Adam Damu charity and a former UN expert for women’s equality said Ms Nazarbayeva had not done enough to promote women’s rights.

“I didn’t know Dariga was promoting women’s rights,” she said. “Here gender inequality in politics and business is gradually moving into the domestic sphere.”

She did say, though, that she would consider supporting Ms Nazarbayeva.

“If she wins in a fair election and if she has a clear gender policy that fits with international norms and standards, then I will vote for her,” she said.

The third women’s rights leader interviewed by The Conway Bulletin said that she would support Dariga Nazarbayeva if she wanted to become president.

“I want to believe that if a woman becomes president there will be pos- itive changes in the country,” said Marianna Gurina, president of the Ulagatty Zhanuya charity, which pro- motes family values and women’s rights.

“Yes, I support her candidacy because I think she, as a woman understands women.”

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Stock market: KAZ Minerals

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Over the course of just a few months, KAZ Minerals has nearly doubled its stock price in London, reaching 267.1p by Thursday.

The company, which operates in Kazakhstan’s copper mining sector, continues to rally off the back of good production results throughout the year and timidly growing copper prices, now at 2.11/lb.

Copper prices, which have fallen sharply from the $3/lb of November 2014, had hovered at around 2.15/lb in September, before dropping back. But now the feeling is that prices are moving back up.

China, a major copper consumer, posted steady growth prospect and negative news from the US housing market indirectly bodes well for copper prices. Sluggish US economic news weakens the dollar and pushes up prices. KAZ Minerals improved its position in both production and revenues this year, mostly due to the start of the Aktogay project, which cost $2.2b to put in operation.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakh President’s grandson says he bought 49% stake in Transtelecom in 2015

ALMATY, OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — After 18 months of rumours, Nurali Aliyev, grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, revealed himself to be the mystery buyer of a 49% stake in Kazakhstan’s telecoms network, Transtelecom.

The 8.9b tenge ($48m at the time) sale was agreed in May 2015, but the identity of the buyer was shielded from the public. At the time of the deal, Mr Aliyev was the deputy mayor of Astana. Kazakhstan’s state-owned railway company, Temir Zholy still holds a 51% stake in Transtelecom.

In an interview with the pro-government Tengrinews website, Mr Aliyev confirmed rumours on opposition websites that he had bought the stake.

“One of the reasons for my departure from the government service was the acquisition of a 49% stake in Transtelecom as part of the privatisation programme,” he said.

Mr Aliyev, 31, quit as deputy mayor of Astana in March this year, saying that he wanted to concentrate on his business commitments. He had held the position since Dec. 2013.

In Kazakhstan, it is fairly com- monplace for senior government members to own stakes in businesses.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

S&P upgrades ratings of Kazakhs lenders

OCT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agency S&P increased the long term credit rating of Kazkommertsbank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest lenders, by one notch to B- from CCC+. S&P said the reason for the upgrade were the positive results in the first half of 2016 and the increased capitalisation of the bank. S&P also said the outlook remained negative, reflect- ing low confidence in Kazakhstan’s banking sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Condor starts production in western Kazakhstan

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian oil company Condor Petroleum said it started commercial production at its Taskuduk field, 50km west of Uralsk in north- western Kazakhstan. Condor said that, together with Shoba, another Kazakh oil field that started operations in September, its total output has reached 600 barrels/day. The company said its production cost remained low, at $28/barrel, allowing a $29/barrel profit in the first sales contract.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

ArcelorMittal resumes in central Kazakhstan

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based steel- maker, said it resumed operations at its plant in central Kazakhstan. The company had to cut production for three days, due to administrative issues which blocked train transport. In a separate note, the company said that Mojtaba Damirchilu, Iran’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, visited the plant and pledged to increase Iranian imports of ArcelorMittal Temirtau’s steel by 1/3 to 1.5m tonnes next year. Iran is ArcelorMittal’s biggest client. The international sanctions on Iran had hit its demand for steel, hurting the Kazakh steelmaker.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Kazakhstan’s oil field produces first oil for 3 years

ALMATY, OCT. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kashagan Caspian Sea oil field, Kazakhstan’s Great White economic hope, started producing oil for the first time since 2013, lifting spirits after a tough couple of years for the Kazakh economy Energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev confirmed the re-start of the $50b Kashagan, which was shut down in 2013 after a couple of weeks of operations because of leaky pipes.

“I checked this morning and production is active from four wells, yielding approximately 90,000 barrels/day,” he told media.

Kashagan is one of the biggest international oil finds of the the last 30 years and Kazakhstan hopes that it will propel the country into the premier league of oil producers.

At peak production, Kashagan aims for an output of 370,000 barrels/day. Total Kazakh production is currently 1.5b barrels/day.

Eni, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, CNPC, Inpex and Kazmunaigas operate the Kashagan field.

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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)