News

The State Property Committee of Belarus has seized by court action the Mak.by restaurant chain from KSB VICTORY RESTAURANTS PTE.LTD, registered in Singapore and controlled by Kairat Boranbayev, Euroradio reported.

The decision was initially made by the Minsk Economic Court on October 10, 2023, although the company immediately filed an appeal to the country’s Supreme Court that was supposed to review the appeal today on January 10, 2023. As a result, the higher authority decided to support the initial decision by the court. The total cost of assets that must be transferred to the government of Belarus is about...

In 2023, Air Astana and its subsidiary Fly Arystan carried eight million passengers, an 8.8% increase, according to the airline’s corporate magazine Tengri, citing the company’s CEO Peter Foster.

The airline’s passenger traffic has broken the record for the second year in a row. According to Foster, the company wants to boost its fleet from 50 aircraft to 80 by 2028.

This year, the airline will launch new destinations such as Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. Last year, Foster said that Air Astana was planning to launch a new flight to New York in 2025 after purchasing a long-range aircraft. The...

According to a draft edict by the country’s government, Alageum Electric will be taken off the national regime associated with government procurement. This means that the company is going to have no foreign competitors in the market.

The national regime allows goods and services of foreign origin to take part in government procurement along with domestic goods and products. No one foreign company will be able to participate in government procurement in Kazakhstan if it’s outside of the national regime.

The Ministry of Industry and Construction that initiated the draft law believes that Alageum Electric can fulfill the demand for...

CNPC-Aktobemunaigas, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), plans to start exploration work at the Teresken-1 field in the Aktobe region of Kazakhstan in the second quarter of this year. The research will last for 60 days. The company has a license for oil exploration and production in the field for six years.

The company is going to conduct field exploration work to assess the potential of oil and gas reserves in the field as well as the two other oil fields North Truva and Akzhol. The area of 3D seismic exploration will be around 689.19 square kilometers...

An owner of SilkNetCom, a Kazakhstani IT and telecommunication company, has given his preliminary consent to sell 100% of his stake in the company to Freedom Telecom, a new telecommunication company in Kazakhstan, which is also part of Freedom Holding Corp., according to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

The deal is estimated at $25.4 million. In addition, the owner of SilkNetCom has also confirmed that he will give Freedom Telecom a stake in the company’s capital worth $6.6 million as a pledge, which is equal to the current value of SilkNetCom assets, KASE noted in its statement. The pledge money...

East Mineral Resources is going to start processing the dump from the Irtysh Copper Smelter to launch production of zinc and copper over the period from 2024 to 2043.

According to the company, the processing operations will be launched at the right bank of the Irtysh River in the Glubokovskoy district of East Kazakhstan 28 kilometers northwest of the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. The project is going to be implemented over the period from 2024 to 2043 by the open-cut method with around 300,000 tons processed per day.

As East Mineral Resources noted, the content of copper in the ore is...

South Oil, a company controlled by Kazakhstani mogul Serikzhan Seitzhanov, is planning to launch oil production at the Western Akshabulak oil field in the Kyzylorda region with an output of 100,300 tons starting in 2027.

As the company reported, it is considering three different scenarios for oil field exploration. The most preferable is the second one, which involves drilling 17 new wells and bringing eight old wells back into operation. As a result, these 25 wells are expected to secure an output of 100,300 tons of oil at its peak in 2028. The accumulated oil output is expected as...

The state-run Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund has paid to the government of Kazakhstan $1 billion in different forms of payouts for 2022. This payment is record-high in the entire history of the fund.

Thus, Samruk Kazyna paid $147 million to the Kazakhstan Halkyna charity fund. The charter of Samruk Kazyna requires the organization to transfer at least 7% of its net profit to the charity fund. In 2022, the wealth fund reported $5.1 billion in profit compared to $4.1 billion in 2021.

In terms of dividend payouts to the government, Samruk Kazyna decided to allocate $523 million, which is...

According to fDi Intelligence’s annual FDI Standouts Watchlist, Kazakhstan reached sixth in the global rating of foreign direct investments (FDI, when an investor controls at least 10% of voting stocks) and macroeconomic prospects as of the end of 2023. Both the IMF and fDi Intelligence believe that the country demonstrated sustainable growth after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Six countries from Asia have been included on the list with Cambodia as the leader, the Philippines second and Kenya third. The top ten countries in terms of FDI also include Namibia and Morocco. Serbia is the only European country to make the list.

As of year-end 2023, the business activity index (BAI) declined by 0.3 points to 48.7 due to the deteriorated performance of the mining industry and the service sector, according to the National Bank.

The BAI reflects the current conditions of the real economic sector and actual changes in the performance by businesses. The indicator also allows the regulator to examine the dynamic of current trends and critical pivots of the business cycle. Changes are positive when the BAI is higher than 50 and conversely is negative if the rate is lower than 50. The further the index rate from the...

According to the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, Kazakhstani insurance businesses reported $17.7 million in losses in November 2023 compared to $16.6 million in losses in October. As the agency noted, the revaluation of currency assets was the key reason for the losses.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan also issues quarterly reports on the insurance sector. As the regulator reported, over the period from July to September, insurance companies earned $412.3 million or $340 million under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Life insurance and non-life insurance accounted for $163 million and $199 million, respectively under...

Timur Turlov, the founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., believes that Kazakhstan’s economy can grow by 6% to 8% per year if its level of monetization increases. The businessman suggests diverting money from commercial banks to the real economy.

According to Turlov, Kazakhstan needs investments in various economic sectors such as the energy industry, data centers, logistics, different types of communications, manufacturing and digitalization of everything.

«The National Bank has sterilized a few trillion tenge by taking money from banks under ±15.75% per annum. And everything is fine. Over the past year, banks and deposit...

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, inflation in Kazakhstan reached 9.8% in December 2023. In 2022, the agency reported a record-high increase in prices of 20.3%.

In December 2023, prices increased by 0.8% versus 1% in November month on month. All key components of the overall consumer price index reported slower price increases. For instance, the cost of food products increased by 8.5% (vs 9.2% in November 2023), non-food products by 9.1% (9.9%) and services by 12.4% (12%).

In terms of price increases for food products, rice has become the champion with an increase of 34.3%, followed by mineral...

Timur Kulibayev and his spouse Dinara Kulibayeva (daughter of Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev) once again lead the list of richest people in Kazakhstan.

According to Forbes, Kulibayev’s fortune is currently estimated at $4.7 billion (622nd place in the world rating). His spouse possesses a similar amount of money. This means that the entire Kulibayev family controls $9.4 billion worth of assets. In 2023, Kulibayev was ranked the second richest individual in Kazakhstan with a fortune of $4.3 billion ($8.6 billion for the family). The last time, the businessman was the first in the rating was in 2018, when his fortune of...

Ulba-TVS, a subsidiary of the national nuclear company Kazatomprom, has been certified for the production of nuclear fuel assemblies of the AFA 3GTM A design, Kazatomprom said in a statement.

«Kazatomprom announces that the joint Kazakhstani-Chinese company Ulba-TVS has completed the certification process for its production of nuclear fuel assemblies under AFA 3GTM A design. The company produces nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants in China. The document confirming that the plant’s products meet all the requirements, norms and quality standards has been issued by Framatome, a French company that owns the technology,» the company said. 

The Ministry of Tourism and Sport has awarded Timur Turlov, the president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation with the title of «Best President of Accredited Sports Federation» in 2023.

What happened? Turlov received the «Best President of Accredited Sports Federation» title during an official ceremony of the 2023 Uzdik Award by the Ministry of Tourism and Sport.

«This award is a result of hard work by the members of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and our chess players. This is nice that all the efforts by Kazakhstani chess players have been noticed and duly appreciated by the...

The government of Kazakhstan is going to exclude the Taliban from its list of prohibited organizations. The move is justified by the fact that the UN Security Council does not view this movement as a terrorist organization, according to the Kazinform news agency, citing Aibek Smadiyarov, the official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan.

What happened? The country’s MFA said that Kazakhstan is excluding the Taliban movement from the national list of terrorist organizations prohibited in Kazakhstan. The decision is justified by the fact that the UN Security Council doesn’t consider the Taliban a terrorist organization.

How is Kazakhstan...

In 2023, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange index managed to rebound from last year’s losses and has grown by 27.9%. Last year, the index declined by 11.5%, according to the exchange’s website.

How did the index constituents behave

As of December 28, 2023, the Bank CenterCredit (BCC) share price was $2.15 versus $1.41 as of the end of 2022. This means that the bank’s share price has grown by 52.65% over the past twelve months. In May 2023, BCC acquired the controlling stake in Sinoasia B&R, an insurance company, and said that it would expand its presence in the insurance...

The final of the FIDE World Rapid Championship 2023 for men and women came to an end in Samarkand. After three days of intense games, Magnus Carlsen, a chess genius from Norway, has become the champion among males, while Anastasia Bondaruk from Russia is now a female champion.

It’s been the fifth title for the Norwegian in his career. He is also a five-time champion in classic chess and a six-time champion in blitz chess.

One of the journalists at the event was curious if Carlsen felt like a character in the Groundhog Day movie given that he won the...

Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) is excluding the Principality of Liechtenstein and the U.S. State of Delaware from its list of offshore zones.

The agency has created a list of offshore zones to facilitate banking and insurance activities, operations of professional stock market participants and other types of activities related to stock markets, investment funds and microfinance organizations.

According to a draft of the ARDFM resolution published for public consideration, the change is following the new U.S. Corporate Transparency Act that enters into force starting January 1, 2024. Under this legislation, all companies incorporated...

The microfinance organization Solva has disclosed the names of the beneficiaries of Neo Crystal Holdings Ltd, a company registered in the UAE that has recently bought a stake in the microfinance company. This is the Sawiris family from Egypt and partners of the ZCP fund.

The Sawiris family’s holding Orascom actively invests in various countries and industries. The founder of Orascom Group Onsi Sawiris established the entity as a developing company but later expanded its scope of interests and focused on long-term investments. The Sawiris family also owns HOF Capital, the fund whose interests lay in the sphere of fintech...

Kazakhstan’s Agency for Protection and Development of Competition has initiated an investigation against mobile operators accused of price fixing, as their prices surged within the range of 7.7% to 57.3%.

What happened? Specialists from the antimonopoly agency have analyzed tariff plans of mobile operators and their price dynamics, stating that prices for telecommunication services increased within the range of 7.7% to 57.3% this year.

«Over the period from May to July, mobile operators gradually increased the cost of services in more than 30 tariff plans with monthly fees,» the agency said in a statement.

Who...

Russia decided to open a general consulate in Aktau and has already obtained consent from the government of Kazakhstan, according to the Komsomoslkaya Pravda newspaper, citing Yevgeny Ivanov, deputy foreign minister of Russia. This is going to be the fourth Russian general consulate in Kazakhstan.

Why is Russia opening a new consulate? According to Ivanov, Russia is going to «significantly expand» its diplomatic presence abroad soon.

«All necessary decisions are made and negotiated with foreign governments. We are going to open embassies in Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea, general consulates in Kapane (Armenia), Aktau (Kazakhstan), Samarkand...

According to Sultan Kamaletdinov, deputy defense minister, Kazakhstan may send its military to the Golan Heights as part of a U.N. international mission. If the country’s parliament approves the move, the military will be sent in March 2024, the official said at a briefing for the media.

What happened? As Kamaletdinov noted, more than 1,500 military personnel from different countries are currently stationed at the Golan Heights. In March 2024, Kazakhstan can send 139 members of its military to the area.

«We started our preparations last spring. Over the period from April to October, we worked...