APRIL 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Tehran to meet with President Hassan Rouhani sign deals worth around $1b, giving Kazakhstan-Iran economic ties a major boost. Kazakhstan has been forthright at trying to boost economic ties with Iran since sanctions were relaxed earlier this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)
APRIL 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Coal production in Kazakhstan could shrink by as much as 20% by 2040, Bolat Akchulakov, president of Kazenergy, an industry lobby group, said. Kazakhstan relies on coal for 66% of its energy consumption. A number of coal fired power plants are currently being phased out both in Kazakhstan and in Russia, the main destination of Kazakhstan’s coal exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-focused miner Central Asia Metals said copper production at its Kounrad project stood at 3,207 tonnes in the first quarter of the year. This is a 36.5% increase compared to the same period last year. The company said this increase was due to the completion of the first expansion of the SX-EW plant last spring.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Automotive holding Allur Auto and Alatau Invest Capital agreed to form a partnership to expand the Kostanai car assembly plant and to create a national brand for Kazakh cars. Alatau is a new financial group owned by the eldest nephew of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kairat Satybaldy. Earlier in February, the company signed an agreement with Kaspi Bank and Baring Vostok to invest in the IT and financial sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Central Asia Metals continued to rally this week in London, establishing a steady positive trend since an all-time low of 124 pence in mid-January.
Its stock price closed at 171p on Thursday, up over a third for the week.
The company is also preparing for the presentation of the yearly results next Monday, which analysts expect to be positive.
“Central Asia Metals operates at a high margin and is thus less affected by low copper prices,” Martin Potts, mining analyst at FinnCap told The Bulletin. “It is an established business in Kazakhstan and it has already repaid all the money it has raised to its shareholders, something unique in this sector.”
In our chart above, we tracked just how closely Central Asia Metals shares and copper have been linked, but it is also possible to note a recent “decoupling” of the two since mid-March.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Exports of agricultural products from Kazakhstan increased by 33% in 2015, Yeremek Kosherbayev, vice minister of agriculture said. Media didn’t report his reasons for the sharp increase but Kazakhstan has been investing heavily in boosting its efficiency in agriculture. One of its biggest exports, now, is wheat.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 4 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government said it was imposing a fine on the consortium operating the Karachaganak gas field in north Kazakhstan, a blow to the companies involved in the project and to corporate governance in the country.
According to Lukoil, one of the companies in the consortium, the fine amounts to $1.6b, potentially the largest-ever penalty imposed on an energy consortium in Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh government has not commented on the size of the fine.
Eni, Shell (through BG), Chevron, Lukoil and state-owned Kazmunaigas are all part of the Karachaganak consortium.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited Cuba for the first time. The visit came shortly after Mr Nazarbayev’s trip to the US for the Nuclear Security Summit. In Cuba, Mr Nazarbayev met President Raul Castro and discussed bilateral cooperation and trade.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The leaking of millions of documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossak Fonesca, dubbed the Panama Papers, hit the headlines this week both for the number of secret documents it disclosed and for the profiles of those involved in hiding money in offshore accounts.
For the Central Asia/South Caucasus region, one important story is the large-scale involvement of the Azerbaijani Presidential family in the country’s gold business.
Investigations on the awarding of the Chovdar project contract to a consortium of offshore companies had already unveiled that Ilham Aliyev’s family was behind Globex International, which owned 11% of the venture.
The latest leaks, though, showed that Mr Aliyev’s daughters, Leyla and Arzu, in fact, also owned Panama-registered Londex Resources, which owned another 45% of the project.
This makes the presidential family the majority owner, with a combined stake of 56%, of a project that holds gold reserves previously valued by the government at around $2.5b.
Other important figures from the South Caucasus and Central Asia, such as Georgian billionaire and former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili and Nurali Aliyev, grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, were also revealed to have hidden money in offshore accounts.
But this, although morally questionable, is not an illegal practice.
What is suspicious, and unfair, is when the Azerbaijani government awards the Presidential family’s unknown offshore companies a very favourable gold contract.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
APRIL 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Altel, a subsidiary of state-owned Kazakhtelecom, said it would phase out its unlimited data package because of lack of network capacity during peak hours. The measure came as a surprise for customers, who turned to online forums to complain. The telecoms market in Kazakhstan is very competitive and companies are seeking new ways to boost revenues. Altel is 49% owned by Tele2 and 51% by Kazakhtelecom.
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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)
