New Qazaq Air holder to manage two airports in Kazakhstan
The Vietnamese Sovico Group, expected to finalize the deal to acquire Kazakhstani Qazaq Air, will also be offered the opportunity to take two airports in Turkestan and Kyzylorda under trust management for several years, according to Kazakhstan’s Vice-Minister of Transport Maksat Kaliakparov.
«As you already know, we have a major anchor investor — Sovico. It plans to enhance Qazaq Air’s fleet with 20 new aircraft they are going to transport from Vietnam. We have offered them to take over the trust management of two airports, located in the towns of Turkestan and Kyzylorda. The issue of granting trust management rights is currently under discussion,» Kaliakparov told journalists.
According to him, transferring airports into trust management will be monitored by the Ministry of Transport and international companies. This includes overseeing the ongoing process and ensuring compliance with requirements related to the airports and other relevant issues.
«We attract investors who will provide financing, develop a financial and economic model, work with a more strategically detailed approach and then present the ministry with their vision for the next five, ten, fifteen and twenty years. And yes, we have taken into account all those mistakes that were made during the transfer of Almaty airport to investors. There were mistakes, indeed, and I acknowledge that,» Kaliakparov said.
Sovico Group is a leading Vietnamese investment group operating in the fields of finance, aviation, real estate, energy and digital transformation. Sovico Group plans to acquire the Qazaq Air airline from the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund. In October, Nurlan Zhakypov, chair of the fund, announced that the deal would be closed by the end of this year.
Neither the exact stake nor the transaction amount have been disclosed. However, Samruk-Kazyna emphasized that the deal could involve a 100% stake. At the same time, the initial two auctions had stipulated that foreign companies could acquire no more than a 49% stake.
In November 2023, Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev revealed for the first time that the Vietnamese Sovico Group might acquire the Aktobe airport and Qazaq Air. At that time, Karabayev valued the airline at roughly $18.91 million.
