FEB. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan will start selling electricity to Iran by the end of March, media quoted its energy minister Shahin Mustafayev, as saying. The trade in electricity marks another step towards fully integrating Iran into the regional economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-based miner KAZ Minerals has continued to rally after publishing its annual report at the end of February.
Since Feb. 1, its share price has gained 61% in the London Stock Exchange.
In the past week, equity researchers have increased their target price and their rating for KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys.
Copper prices have gone up in the past weeks and this has allowed the company to be more bullish in its forecast.
One sign of warning, however, comes from the strengthening tenge. The stability of the Kazakh currency at around 350/$1 over the past weeks confirms appears to suggest that it has founds an equilibrium.
This means that last year’s foreign currency gains for KAZ Minerals were a one-off boon and the company will have to rely solely on increased production if it wants to keep its growth rate.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
MARCH 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian miner Polymetal bought the Kapan gold mine in Armenia from Canada’s Dundee Precious Metals, in a move that consolidates and expands its Armenian assets.
The deal, worth up to $50m, is Polymetal’s second acquisition in Armenia, after it bought the Lichkvaz gold mine last year for $13.2m.
Kapan, a medium-sized mine, located around 300km south of Yerevan, is surrounded by other gold reserves. Lichkvaz is 70km away from Kapan. According to the latest survey, it holds 16m tonnes of ore. Polymetal wants to make it a processing centre for its operations in Armenia.
“We believe Polymetal can transform Kapan from a low-margin asset into a capital-light profitable regional processing hub with sizable production” said Vitaly Nesis, Polymetal CEO.
Analysts agreed that the deal would bring major benefits to Polymetal’s Armenia operations.
“Polymetal bought Kapan to enable synergies with Lichkvaz. I think Polymetal will focus on developing these two mines first (before looking at others),” said Anna Mulholland, director of equity research for European metals at Deutsche Bank.
Dundee will receive $10m in cash and $15m in shares from Polymetal. Dundee is also entitled to receive a 2% royalty, capped at $25m.
Kapan produced 410,000 tonnes of ore in 2015, a 2% increase compared to 2014. Last year, Dundee said production at Kapan could rise to around 1m tonnes per year.
Polymetal’s operations are mostly concentrated in Russia. In May 2014, Polymetal bought the Kyzyl gold mine in Kazakhstan from Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev for $619m.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
FEB. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US ice cream maker Baskin Robbins said it wants to open its first cafe in Tajikistan, although it didn’t say when. Baskin Robbins operates in several countries in the former Soviet Union, including Armenia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. French retailer Auchan opened a store in Dushanbe last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — “Net worth” might not be hard data, but it’s still a decent indication of just how hard the economic downturn and the fall in commodity prices have hit Kazakhstan.
The owners of Kazakh miner ENRC lost a total of $1.8b in net worth in 2015, according to Forbes’ 2016 Billionaires list, showing the economic collapse that has hit Kazakhstan.
Aleksander Machkevich, Patok Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov, the “Kazakh Trio,” lost around $600m each in 2015.
ENRC de-listed in London in November 2013 after disputes in the board and fraud investigations. The Kazakh Trio owns Eurasian Resources Group, a Luxembourg- based holding that owns ENRC.
Mr Ibragimov is the only member of the Trio registered in Kazakhstan.
Other members of the exclusive Kazakh billionaire club who have seen their fortunes dip include Dinara Kulibayeva, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s daughter, and her husband Timur Kulibayev, each valued at $2b in 2015, down from a valuation of $2.1b in 2014.
Kazakhstan’s richest man, Bulat Utemuratov, fell 57 places in Forbes’ ranking. Mr Utemuratov is now the 771st richest man in the world, at $2.3b.
Finally, Forbes said that Vladimir Kim, who owns one-third of KAZ Minerals, saw his net worth decline from $1.8b to $1.5b.
Overall, the top five business people in Kazakhstan are worth $1.5b less than last year, that’s a 14% cut.
If the depreciation of the tenge has badly hit ordinary consumers and savers in Kazakhstan, the commodity slump remains the biggest headache for the high-flying business people.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
MARCH 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia, a new low cost airline, will start flying in April, pending the approval of Armenia’s aviation committee. The owners of Georgia’s low cost airline Georgian Airways, Tamaz Gaiashvili and Robert Oganesian, own 49% of Armenia, while Ashot Torosyan, an Armenian businessman, owns 51% of the company. Armenia’s aviation sector has been in flux since Air Armenia was declared bankrupt in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
FEB. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Armenian government agency slapped a 50m dram ($102,000) fine on Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Armenia for unfair competition. Armenia’s State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition found Coca Cola Hellenic guilty of “creating barriers to entry of competitors into the market.”
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
MARCH 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 1,000 miners at the Tkibuli mine in central Georgia ended their two-week long strike after agreeing a pay rise with Georgia Industrial Group (GIG) which owns the mine. Under the deal, the company GIG will increase miners’ salaries by 7% now and another 3% in April. The miners had wanted a 40% pay rise. Last week they broke into the GIG regional office.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
FEB. 27 2016, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Anger, frustration, despair. These were the main emotions described by the hundreds of protesters who marched through Tbilisi’s Old Town protesting against plans supported by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the former PM and the richest man in the country, to transform the surrounding hills into a series of hotels and entertainment centres.
“It’s unbelievable to me that they can get away with this.” Denis, 28, told The Conway Bulletin, while he was drawing a green NO on the palm of his hand.
“Why don’t they invest the $500m in revitalising our crumbling old town?”
Of course, though, there is another side. Mr Ivanishvili has said that the plans, which would also mean building a new cable car starting in Freedom Square at the heart of the city, will not alter the character of the city and will instead draw thousands more tourists, create much needed income and jobs.
“This project is interesting for our children and tourists. This will be a main tourist attraction. I am able and I want to assist my city,” Bidzina Ivanishvili has previously said.
For now, the developers appear to be winning the argument over the Panorama project and construction work has started, although planners have ruled against other projects.
The issues, though, remain the same across the region. Officials and businessmen, often linked to the political elite, want to develop a part of a city. Frustrated locals, often with few issues to protest legally about, want to stop them.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
MARCH 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -A consortium formed by Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Turkey’s Renaissance holding has started construction on a $1.7b gas- to-liquids plant in Turkmenistan. The plant will produce petrol from natural gas. When it starts production in 2018, the plant will process around 1.8b cubic metres of gas and produce 600,000 tonnes of petrol.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)