Tag Archives: business

TeliaSonera companies reassure Kazakh, Uzbek, Azerbaijani customers

ALMATY, SEPT. 18-21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shortly after Swedish telecoms TeliaSonera said last week it was leaving Central Asia and the South Caucasus, its local brands were quickly reassuring worried customers they were not quitting altogether.

Azercell, Geocell, Kcell, Tcell and Ucell, TeliaSonera’s assets in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, all issued statements saying they will continue to operate.

Rumours still swirled but they focused on who would takeover TeliaSonera’s assets. Turkcell, which through Fintur is already a stakeholder in Azercell, Geocell and Kcell, is favourite. TeliaSonera also owns a stake in Fintur.

“To explore our strategic options to acquire the remaining stake in Fintur, we have initiated the process to appoint a strategic and financial advisor,” Turkcell said.

Analysts had mixed reaction. Some said TeliaSonera’s assets would attract decent bids, others that the poor state of the Kazakh economy would undermine their value.

Alexander Vasiliyev, editor of the website Profit.kz said Kcell would be a good buy for a global telecoms company.

“It continues to lay golden eggs, it is the largest player in the Kazakh market,” he told Kapital.kz.

Aivar Baikenov, Head of Research at Asyl-Invest, disagreed. He singled out the drop in the value of the Kazakh tenge, down 40% in a year, as a major problem.

“Kazakhstan is not attractive for foreign investors due to the devaluing tenge. I suppose Kcell could be interesting for local or maybe Russian investors,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Armenia to produce lifts

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian private company ADA Tech and the Chinese lift manufacturing factory Koyo signed an agreement to jointly build a lift factory in Armenia by 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kyrgyzstan endures Manas airport funding headache

SEPT. 21 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — When the US military quit its airbase outside Bishkek in July 2014, ambitious officials dreamt of turning Manas airport in a Central Asian transport hub that would connect Europe and South-East Asia.

A year on and this dream is still very much that. There have been no major investments.

In an interview with the Bulletin at his office in central Bishkek, Nursultan Belekov, the 24-year-old deputy head of Manas Airport’s investment department, explained his frustration.

“We have worked hard to attract Russian, Turkish and Chinese partners, but no one has contributed yet,” he said.

Earlier this year Rosneft rowed back on an earlier promise to invest in the airport, perhaps making Manas a victim of a sharp economic downturn hitting the region.

Mr Belekov, who is standing for parliament in October’s election, had a different spin on Rosneft’s pull out from Manas.

“They offered to invest $1b dollars, but we were needed to refuse because Manas airport is a strategic object for Kyrgyzstan’s independence, and a 51% stake cannot go to a foreign company,” he said. Manas needs around $1.2b investment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kazakh gas utility to issue bond

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KazTransGaz Aimak, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned gas transit system, said it plans to issue Eurobonds for 5b tenge ($18.6m) to refinance its outstanding debt. KazTransGas Aimak, which controls the gas distribution system in the Almaty region, has an outstanding bonds issue of 8.6b tenge ($31.9m) maturing in December 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kazakhstan’s Potash cuts assets

SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan Potash Corporation, an Australia-listed mineral exploration company focused on Kazakhstan and Australia, said its assets had been overvalued by $302m in its half-year report. Mining companies operating in Central Asia have come under pressure to devalue their assets as local currencies have lost value.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kyrgyzstan focuses on agriculture

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Agricultural projects outnumbered any other sector for applications to a $1b Russian-Kyrgyz development fund for small and medium enterprises in Kyrgyzstan. The data highlights Kyrgyzstan’s predominantly agricultural economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Russian mining company to buy stake in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian mining company Polymetal offered Sumeru Gold $300m for its 50% stake in the Kyzyl gold project in Kazakhstan. Sumeru Gold is linked to Timur Kulibayev, a high profile Kazakh businessman and son- in-law of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The deal will mean Sumeru Gold also gives up its 7.4% share in Polymetal.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Tajikistan boosts imports of LNG

SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To meet growing demand, Tajikistan has increased the volume of liquefied natural gas (LNG) it imported to 220,000 tonnes in the first eight months of the year, an increase of 18% over the same period last year. Tajikistan imports LNG from Kazakhstan. Over the past year, the proportion of LNG-fuelled vehicles on the road in Tajikistan has increased to 60% from 40%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Georgia expects power investment

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia expects investments in its energy sector of $8b over the next few years, media quoted a Reuters interview with Ilia Beroshvili, Georgia’s deputy energy minister. Mr Beroshvili said that most of the investment would be in gas processing plants and hydropower.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Stock market: Centerra Gold, KAZ Minerals

SEPT. 11-18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian mining company Centerra Gold saw its stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange jump over 16% to 7.34 Canadian dollars, after having slumped in the past three weeks, due to the signing of a new exploration licence in British Columbia. Centerra’s main asset, the Kumtor gold mine, is located in Kyrgyzstan. London listed KAZ Minerals, was down 6% to 152 pence due to low copper prices. Kazakhstan-focused Roxi Petroleum gained 4.4% this week, to 8.75 pence.

Kcell, one of Kazakhstan’s largest telecoms, lost 2% on Sept. 17 after its mother company TeliaSonera said it would leave Eurasian markets.

London-listed Bank of Georgia surged 3.9% this week to 1,907 pence. The GDR stock of Georgia’s TBC Bank lost 6.5% this week in London, down to $9.25 per share, though it had fallen to $9.11 on Sept. 14.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)