News

Trianon Limited, a company controlled by Kazakhstani billionaires Vladimir Kim and Oleg Novachuk, has sold its Baimskaya gold and copper project in Chukotka to Northern Aurora, a Russian closed mutual investment fund. In early May 2024, the U.S. added the Baimskaya mining company to its sanctions list.

According to the Russian Business Register, 99% of Baimskaya Holding, which controls GDK Baimskaya (the Baimskaya mining complex), belongs to Northern Aurora. The remaining 1% is controlled by the Baimskaya Managing Company, established by Northern Aurora. The managing company of the mutual fund itself is RusCapital.

Trianon Limited acquired Baimskaya from KAZ Minerals...

As many as 470,000 freight containers will go through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) connecting China and Europe or 800,000 containers if all Central Asia is taken into account, the press service of Mazhilis, the lower chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament reported, citing the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

For comparison: In 2023, only 20,500 containers went through the TITR, which was a 39% decline over 2022. However, over the first four months of 2024, about 10,400 containers were shipped via the route, a 70.4% increase compared to the same period last year.

TITR container freight volume is...

According to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) forecast, the volume of oil going through the pipeline will decrease due to a 7% decline in expected output at 70 million tons of oil at the Tengiz field.

«As the updated forecast shows, oil output is going to decline by 7% this year compared to figures we have budgeted based on preliminary applications from freight forwarders. We are expecting a decline of 7.9 million tons from Tengiz and an increase of 3.3 million tons from Kashagan. The overall deviation from planned volumes is negative 4.8 million tons,» the...

All the money the government of Kazakhstan gained from Lesha Bank, an investment bank from Qatar that acquired Bereke Bank, will be sent to the state budget, according to Baiterek Holding. At the same time, the law on state property says that the funds should be sent to the National Fund.

«If the deal is successfully closed, all the money will be sent to the state budget,» Baiterek said in a response to Kursiv’s inquiry.

On May 20, 2024, Lesha Bank announced that the deal with the acquisition of Bereke Bank was closed. This announcement...

According to Deputy Chairman of the Board of Baiterek Holding Zhandos Shaikhy, preliminary data shows that the holding earned roughly $272.7 million in the first quarter of 2024, which is a 9% increase over the previous year.

In Q1, Baiterek financed 14 export transactions and eight investment projects in the amount of $347.3 million.

Furthermore, the financial institution has allocated about $402.7 million for the support of 3,400 businesses from the agricultural industry, while around $476.7 million was given to 36 exporting companies.

Otbasy Bank, a subsidiary of Baiterek, issued $562.5 million in loans to retail customers over the first...

KazMunayGas (KMG) representatives traveled to the U.S. to meet potential investors to promote new geological-prospecting projects in Kazakhstan, according to Dastan Abdulgafarov, the deputy CEO of KMG.

«KMG has completed a set of big geological-prospecting examinations of absolutely new fields and reassessed subsoil reserves of the Caspian Sea region over the past few years. I can say that we have discovered very promising fields and already conducted our road show for potential investors in the U.S. recently,» he said at the Astana Energy Forum, organized by S&P Global.

The national oil company has already been...

The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan is once again reviewing small modular reactors of U.S. and Japanese design as options for the future Kazakhstani nuclear power plant, according to Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev. In 2022, the ministry removed them from the official list of nuclear technology vendors, citing a lack of international practice of using these reactors. As the minister noted, the government will be ready to start the bidding process for its nuclear power plant once all potential vendors file their applications.

«So far, Korea, Russia, China and France have been qualified. However, this is...

According to a survey prepared by RIA Novosti, consumers in Kazakhstan have the privilege of enjoying the lowest natural gas prices ($0.07 per cubic meter) in the world. It won’t last for long, though, as the country’s Ministry of Energy is going to raise wholesale prices for gas by 20%. 

The news agency found out that one average monthly salary in Kazakhstan is enough to buy more than 10,000 cubic meters of gas compared to 9,000 and 5,000 in Russia and Belarus, respectively. Portugal (991.9 cubic meters), Lithuania (805.4) and Moldova (604.8) have shown the worst result in the rating. The highest price...

Pipeline operators in Poland and Russia have settled the issue that threatened to stop the transit of Kazakhstani oil to Germany via the Druzhba oil pipeline, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.

In April, Russian Transneft warned Kazakhstan that its oil export to Germany might be stopped due to problems with servicing oil flowmeters in Poland.

The problem emerged when Russian Transneft and Polish pipeline operator PERN couldn’t extend their servicing contract that expires on June 5. PERN was reluctant to sign any new arrangements with Russia that might put it at risk of breaching anti-Russian...

According to Deputy Head of Baiterek Nurbolat Aidapkelov, the sale of Bereke Bank to Lesha Bank for $146.2 million was good for both the holding and Kazakhstan as a whole.

«Given that we have acquired the bank, let’s say, for one tenge, what we managed to earn from the deal [65 billion tenge or $146.2 million] is very good. I mean, we have bought the bank almost for nothing,» he said.

As the official noted, not a single penny from the state budget was spent on acquiring the former subsidiary of Russian Sberbank in September...

The government of Kazakhstan wants to preserve the Caspian seal by establishing a special natural reserve in the Mangystau and Atyrau regions.

The Ministry of Agriculture has already presented a draft regulation on «the creation of the state natural reserve to preserve the Caspian seal. It will be available for public consideration on http://legalacts.egov.kz until June 5.

“To create the state natural reserve under the Fishing Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture to preserve the population of the Caspian seal in the Caspian Sea, at the territory of the Mangystau and Atyrau regions,» the document says.

According to Vice Minister of Finance Dauren Temirbekov, Kazakhstani and Chinese statistics on goods turnover don’t match each other because the two countries use different methodologies. This is why the difference in statistics is unavoidable, he explained to the Senate, the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament.

«There is a positive trend in terms of mirror statistics with China. For example, in 2018, the difference rate was 52.5%; in 2023, the rate was just 32%. This is about $7.9 million in terms of money. We are seeing a downward trend,» Temirbekov underlined.

As the official noted...

An oil refinery in Bulgaria run by Russian oil company Lukoil has boosted imports of Kazakhstani oil after the country was banned from purchasing oil from Russia, according to Vedomosti, a Russian business media outlet.

In May 2024, Kazakhstan became the biggest oil supplier in Bulgaria as Lukoil Neftohim Burgas was purchasing about 80,400 barrels of Kazakhstani high-sulfur oil Kebco and a lighter CPC Blend per day, which was an eightfold increase compared to January.

Overall, in May, the facility acquired 130,000 barrels per day, the highest rate since the beginning of the year. However, the refinery’s capacity is much...

SOVICO Group, an investment company from Vietnam, is going to acquire Qazaq Air, according to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. He made this statement while speaking at the closing ceremony of the Kazakhstan-Singapore Business Forum in Singapore.

«I am hailing the privatization of our Qazaq Air by the Vietnamese SOVICO Group as it will be a real booster for air travel between Kazakhstan and the ASEAN countries,» Tokayev stated. 

The current owner of the airline Samruk Kazyna had tried to sell Qazaq Air for a while. In August 2023, the holding announced its first bidding in an...

According to Gulbanu Maigarina, head of the Central Asian Association of Franchising, investors from Central Asia are interested in purchasing franchises from Kazakhstani companies to build their businesses based on successful business models.

«A relatively large quantity of Kazakhstani companies have franchises in Central Asian states. For instance, Lanzhou has franchises in five countries, including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan and Russia account for the vast majority of Kazakhstani franchises,» the expert said.

On May 22, an international summit of franchise associations from Turkic states was held in Astana. Guests from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and...

Freedom Bank plans to combine about 30 apps from its services in one closed financial ecosystem called Freedom Bridge. Once the move is done, all subsidiaries of Freedom Holding Corp. will become neobanks, according to Aidos Zhumagulov, adviser to the chair of the board of directors in Freedom Bank.

«As a bank, we are developing a bridge project called Bank-as-a-Service. Once it is done, we will be able to expand our financial services in every company based on Open API. We want to enrich the holding’s ecosystem with our financial products. The group has both financial...

Lesha Bank, an investment bank from Qatar has closed the deal related to the acquisition of Bereke Bank, according to a statement published on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) website. Even though as of April 1, the Kazakhstani bank had $367.2 million in its capital, the deal value was equal to just 39.8% of that sum.

Neither side officially reported the deal, although it was closed on March 31. Two weeks before that date, Madina Abylkassymova, chair of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of the Republic of Kazakhstan (ARDFM) revealed that negotiations between Lesha Bank...

CEO of Halyk Bank Umut Shayakhmetova believes that only reducing the base rate can supply the demand for long money the country needs for modernization and development. She made this statement while speaking at the conference «Financial Sector of Kazakhstan: 25 Years of Strategic Challenges.»

«It’s not an easy task to find borrowers if the base rate is high. Even though there is a big demand for long money for economic modernization and development, we are seeing fewer projects now and are mainly lending money to the trade for no longer than twelve months. We are...

According to President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should be constantly focusing on the fight against the «three forces of evil» – terrorism, separatism and extremism. He made this statement during a meeting with foreign ministers from the SCO member states.

«Kazakhstan is fully committed to expanding our cooperation in this sphere. The cooperation program on the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism is a practical step in this direction,» the president highlighted.

He also noted that the SCO Anti-Drug Strategy will promote mutual actions aimed at countering drugs and financial...

Bekzhan Pirmatov, CEO of Forte Bank, and Umut Shayakhmetova, CEO of Halyk Bank, do not think that the arrival of foreign banks is a magic pill for Kazakhstan’s banking sector. Newcomers are probably bound to lend money to businesses and consumers at higher rates than their local competitors. Here are some quotations from the executives’ speeches at the conference «Financial Sector of Kazakhstan: 25 Years of Strategic Challenges.»

The issue was discussed against the backdrop of reports about the acquisition of Bereke Bank by Lesha Bank from Qatar. Even though the deal was closed on March 31, the Qatar Stock...

President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov addressed the nation over unrest that triggered the mass exodus of Pakistani students out of the country.

According to the president, all the disorder was provoked by some politicians who are serving their sentences in jail. He warned that next time law enforcement officers will receive an order to apply force to counter rioters.

As Japarov mentioned, on May 13, police detained several people involved in a violent but limited incident. However, on May 18, «some forces interested in getting the situation more acute» disseminated «fake news about the incident» adding fuel to the conflict.

The Kazakhstani transportation business will obtain an additional number of permits for transporting freight to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Ministry of Transport expects this move to boost the commodity turnover between Kazakhstan and the Baltic states. 

«Currently, Kazakhstani carriers need more permits for cargo transportation from European countries. We have already distributed among Kazakhstani transport companies more than 70% of permits we had obtained from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia earlier this year,» said Transport Minister of Kazakhstan Marat Karabayev. 

To solve the problem, Kazakhstan approached the three Baltic states with a request for additional permits. As...

The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) wants insurance companies to ensure that the confidential data of their customers is safe. The corresponding draft regulation will be available on legalacts.egov.kz for public consideration until May 28.

If the new regulation is adopted, the agency will oblige insurance companies to follow banks and microfinance organizations and embrace the same security measures.

For instance, any registration in a mobile or web application should be conducted with the help of biometric authentication. The same procedure must be applied during the password change, while two-stage authentication is expected to be...

According to Senator Ali Bektayev, high recycling fees that farmers have to pay while purchasing new agricultural machinery have made them reluctant to upgrade their machinery. They prefer using their outdated and worn-out tractors and combines. On the other hand, farmers can’t afford Kazakhstani-made machinery as local producers heavily rely on expensive foreign details. 

«As of 2024, a recycling fee for a tractor varies from $835 to $16,680 and from $3,606 to $18,708 for a combine. These are significant sums for farmers. As a result, many farms stopped buying new machinery and switched to dismantling old vehicles for...