Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Stock market: Central Asia Metals

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Central Asia Metals, a Kazakhstan-focused copper producer, jumped 5% on Monday after it announced that its Q2 production had increased by 20%, boosting investor confidence. It closed at 156p/share on Thursday.

The company can now boast a 27% growth in production and a 24% increase in sales for H1 2016, compared to the same period last year. Central Asia Metals is expanding its Kounrad project, a copper recovery plant, which should be expanded in H2 2016.

The past six months or so have been a rollercoaster for Central Asia Metals’ share price. It plunged to an 18-month low in January before rebounding back to above 160p/share in March. After a brief period of stability, though, the stock suffered the downward pressure of declining copper prices and spiraled down to around 145p/share.

Analysts said the nature of Central Asia Metals’ production makes it immune from copper price volatility, but, as shown in the graph, both the stock and the commodity have gained 10% since the beginning of the year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakhstan is ready to supply gas to China, president says

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan is ready to supply gas to China, a move that would further improve the two countries’ energy ties. Mr Nazarbayev met with Wang Yilin, chairman of China’s state-owned energy company CNPC, in Astana. Mr Nazarbayev hailed CNPC’s role in boosting Kazakhstan’s energy sector with its multi-billion dollar investments over the past two decades. Kazakhstan currently hosts a gas pipeline that pumps Turkmen gas to China.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh city government refuses land protest

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The city government of Shymkent, south Kazakhstan, said it rejected an application filed by civic activists to hold a rally against the land reform on July 6. The local government said that the activists had failed to apply on time. Although it has formally been scrapped from parliamentary debate, the proposed land reform is still a contentious issue in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

China to invest into Kazakh Glencore

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – State-owned China National Gold Group and Silk Road Fund will partner to invest $2b to buy the Vasilkovskoye mine in Kazakhstan, owned by Glencore. China’s Shandong Gold Mining and Zijin Mining Group have also expressed interest in the mine. Glencore owns 70% of Kazzinc, the company that operates Vasilkovskoye, which is located 300km north-west of Astana.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakhtelecom improves corporate governance ahead of a potential IPO

ALMATY, JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Aleksander Klebanov, one of Kazakhstan’s richest men, bought a 24.47% stake in Kazakhtelecom, the state-owned telecoms company, in a move to improve corporate governance ahead of a planned IPO in London.

Mr Klebanov’s Sobrio Ltd, a London-registered shelf company, bought shares from two companies officially owned by Aigul Nuriyeva, the 8th richest Kazakh according to Forbes. She was widely perceived as holding these companies on behalf of Mr Klebanov.

Wary of past corporate governance flops, Kazakhtelecom said the transfer of shares would improve transparency ahead of an IPO.

“The deal was conducted for Kazakhtelecom ownership structure optimisation and transparency purposes in preparation for a possible IPO,” the company said in a press release.

For two years, Kazakhtelecom has mulled over an IPO in London.

Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, owns 52% of Kazakhtelecom. Earlier this year, Kazakhtelecom’s subsidiaryAltel merged with Tele2, a Swedish telecoms company, in an effort to boost its mobile profile.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh capital grows in population

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said triumphantly that Astana had grown to 1m residents. The announcement came just days before the celebrations of Astana Day, a holiday in Kazakhstan that coincides withMr Nazarbayev’s birthday. The figure appears designed to impress upon people the success of the Astana project. By most estimations, the population of Astana is around 800,000.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakhstan’s trade turnover sinks

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hit by a sharp drop in commodity prices, Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover shrank by 30% in Jan.-April compared to the same period last year, the Statistics Committee said. Exports fell by 31% in the first four months of the year to $11b while imports fell by 29% to $7.2b. The global drop in oil and commodity prices has exposed Kazakhstan’s over reliance on its extractive industry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh court jails doctors for selling babies

ALMATY, JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Almaty court sentenced a group of former doctors, nurses and mothers to prison for selling newborn children, exposing another case of corruption and human trafficking in Kazakhstan’s healthcare system.

Four mothers who had sold their children, 10 hospital workers and one other person linked to the trafficking of the babies will face between two and nine years in prison.

The sentence ended a trial that lasted for one year and targeted the illegal market of children.

For eight years, hospital workers, including several doctors, had organised the sale of at least 30 children at a price of between $500 and $6,000 each. One nurse sold as many as 10 babies.

The parents who bought the babies were pardoned by the judge, avoiding both a sentence and a criminal record, allowing them to become their children’s official guardians.

Under Kazakh law, people who have a criminal record cannot legally adopt children.

During the trial, parents who bought the babies said they had agreed to the trafficking ring because it was easier than facing the bureaucratic hurdles of adoption.

Aiman Umarova, a lawyer who defended a woman who bought a baby, told the Conway Bulletin’s Kazakhstan correspondent that this was not an isolated case in Kazakhstan.

“It is a problem across the country. In maternity houses you can easily sell children,” she said.

Last month, a court in Shymkent, south Kazakhstan, started a trial against workers in a maternity centre accused of selling as many as 21 newborn babies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh police arrests several men

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan said they had arrested several men in two villages near Karaganda in the centre of the country as they prepared explosives for a terror attack. Kazakhstan’s security forces have been on high alert since a series of attacks in Aktobe at the start of June killed around two dozen people. Officials linked the attack to radical Islamists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kazakhstan aims to reduce black economy

JUNE 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to reduce the size of the black economy and to increase the size of tax receipts, Kazakhstan has unveiled plans to force people to declare their income. Media reported that civil servants and employees of state-owned companies will have to declare their full income by 2017, with everybody else following by 2020. The black economy in Kazakhstan has been growing as people try to avoid paying taxes.

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(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)