Official comments on a possible deal with Russian subsidiaries in Kazakhstan

The first vice minister of national economy Timur Zhaksylykov said that there are two options for a possible deal with the sale of Russian bank subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.

The first option is a direct sale of loan portfolios of the Russian subsidiaries with a discount. On April 13, 2022, Halyk Bank already bought a part of the retail loan portfolio of Sberbank of $726 million. This deal covered car loans, issued within a preferential loans program; collateral-free loans; urgent cash loans and mortgage loans. As of April 1, the loan portfolio of Sber was about $2.4 billion.

«Probably some Russian bank subsidiaries may give their consent on a deal with the acquisition of their business here and some local banks would buy those subsidiaries. In this case, new owners will be able to rebrand those banks and make them completely new financial entities. They will buy all those banks’ branch networks, loan portfolios and other stuff; this scenario is not ruled out,» he said.

The official noted that negotiations have already been conducted, even though he declined to specify any banks. Zhaksylykov said that the ministry doesn’t expect any decline in lending for small- and medium-sized businesses because of problems Russian subsidiaries are struggling with due to anti-Russian sanctions.