Tag Archives: banking

Kazakhstan continues hunt for Ablyazov

MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities have stepped up their hunt for Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former chairman of BTA Bank.

First, in April, police in Almaty arrested Ablyazov’s former business partner Erlan Tatishev. Now, on May 29, Italian police swooped on Ablyazov’s wife, Alma Shalabayeva, and their 6-year-old daughter who were living in Rome.

The actual whereabouts of Ablyazov, wanted by British police for lying in court, is unknown, although media reports said Ms Shalabayeva was carrying a Central African Republic passport with a fake name when she was detained.

Lawyers for Ms Shalabayeva said the raid was illegal and that she held a Kazakh passport with a Latvian residency permit allowing her to stay in the EU. The Kazakh prosecutor-general has accused Ms Shalabayeva of being involved in various crimes.

Regardless, it appears defeating Ablyazov in court was not enough for Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

He has long considered Ablyazov to be dangerous. After fleeing Kazakhstan in 2009, Ablyazov set himself up in London. He funded political parties and media projects with the thinly disguised aim of unseating Mr Nazarbayev.

The Kazakh authorities accuse Ablyazov of stealing billions of dollars from BTA Bank, trying to overthrow the government and plotting to bomb public buildings.

This year a British court ruled against Ablyazov and ordered him to repay the Kazakh state billions of dollars.

British judges also decided that Ablyazov had lied in court. He has been on the run since 2012.

The net is tightening and the Kazakh authorities may soon have their man. This might, though, be the easy bit.

What to do with Albyazov then is possibly more complicated.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Ablyazov family deported to Kazakhstan

MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Italy detained and deported back to Kazakhstan the wife and daughter of fugitive billionaire banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, media reported. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev considers Ablyazov, ex-chairman of BTA Bank, to be one of his biggest enemies.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Azerbaijan’s SOFAZ buys into VTB

MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Alongside the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and Norway and the China Construction Bank, Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) bought part of a $3.3b stake in Russian bank VTB, the bank told local media. The deal again shows just how much wealth Azerbaijan has at its disposal.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Kazkommertsbank posts positive results

MAY 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest bank, reported a 15% rise in net profit in Q1 2013 compared to Q1 2012. The increase was due to higher interest rate payments and a fall in bad debt. Kazkommertsbank’s results are important for the Kazakh banking sector which is still recovering from the 2009 global economic crisis.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakh legal cases unravel in London

MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — London is the global centre of dispute resolution.

Its courts, solicitors, barristers and the law itself are respected around the world attracting businesses and individuals who need to settle commercial disputes.

Now, a study of documents over the past five years has shown that Kazakhstan-focused legal disputes generated the second highest number of cases, the London-based Independent newspaper reported. Dispute resolution in London can be used as a rough gauge of a country’s economic activity.

According to the report, only the United States has been the focus of so many litigation issues.

Of the 705 litigation cases covered since 2008 by the Commercial Court, the business dispute arm of the High Court in London, 86 related to Kazakhstan. Russia, which has had more high-profile and expensive cases, recorded 75 cases.

The biggest Kazakhstan-oriented case to pass through the British courts in the past five years was the dispute involving Mukhtar Ablyazov who was accused of defrauding BTA Bank, where he had been chairman, of billions of dollars.

Ablyazov is currently on the run, having been charged with perjury last year. Earlier this year, the High court ordered Ablyazov to re-pay $2b.

According to the Independent’s report, the BTA/Ablyazov dispute case generated 11 individual cases, employing at least 50 solicitors.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

UniCredit sells ATF Bank in Kazakhstan

MAY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deal has been rolling around in and out of public view for most of the year but it now looks as if it’s finally been wrapped up.

KazNitrogenGaz, an investment group officially owned by Galimzhan Yesenov, has bought ATF Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest banks, for $500m from UniCredit, an Italian bank, media reported.

This is a lower figure than previously touted around.

It’s also telling because it’s about a quarter of the price that UniCredit paid for it in 2007.

When UniCredit bought ATF Bank, Kazakhstan’s economy was on the up and banks were, relatively casually, handing out loans to Kazakh consumers and businesses. When the global economy slowed and faltered in 2008, these loans went bad and Kazakh banks, including ATF Bank, took a large hit.

According to reports, 40 percent of ATF Bank’s loan portfolio is still regarded as non-performing.

With the Kazakh economy rebounding in the past five years, the government is preparing to sell off majority stakes in four banks it was forced to rescue from bankruptcy in 2009.

The buyers of the state’s stakes in these banks are wealthy Kazakhs and buying back ATF Bank from UniCredit could be an extension of that plan. The 31-year-old Mr Yesenov is relatively obscure but behind him is his powerful father-in-law, Akhmetzhan Yesimov. That is where the real power and drive for buying ATF Bank may lie.

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

UniCredit bank sells Kazakh subsidiary

MAY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – After months of veiled negotiations, Italy’s UniCredit bank sold ATF Bank, its Kazakh subsidiary, for $500m. The buyer is the relatively unknown Galimzhan Yesenov, son-in-law of the mayor of Almaty.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

Ex-BTA director detained in Kazakhstan

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh police detained Yerlan Tatishev, a former director of BTA Bank which the government bailed out in 2009, on embezzlement charges, media reported. BTA Bank’s former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, is currently on the run having been found guilty of perjury by a British court.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Astana Finance restructures its debt

APRIL 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh finance company Astana Finance is looking for a new date to restructure its $2b debt after missing a previous deadline set on March 28, Reuters quoted managing director Daniyar Nurskenov as saying. Astana Finance, set up 13 years ago, defaulted on its debts in 2009 along with three other Kazakh banks.

(News report from Issue No. 131, published on April 12 2013)

Azerbaijan’s offshore accounts

APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Documents obtained by the whistle-blower website the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists linked Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and his family to several offshore bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands. Opposition in Azerbaijan accuse Mr Aliyev of corruption. He, and his family, declined to comment.

(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)