DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to invest $500m into projects run by the Azerbaijani state over the next three years, media quoted the organisation’s representative in Baku, Olly Norojono, as saying. Mr Norojono also said that the ADB’s investment portfolio in Azerbaijan was currently $1.2b up from $500m in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera sacked another top executive from its Eurasian division which has been linked to murky deals in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The allegations of dubious deals bring into focus the links between the Uzbek and Kazakh elites and Western companies’ desire to tap into markets.
Media reported that Veysel Aral, head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit, was fired after only 10 months in the job.
He took over in February from Tero Kivisaari who had been head of the unit in 2007 when it made a $350m payment to a Gibraltar-registered company linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, in return for a 3G licence.
Swedish media released details of that deal a couple of years ago triggering an internal investigation that has led to several high-level resignations and sackings at TeliaSonera.
Before Mr Aral took over from Mr Kivisaari as head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit he had been in charge of KCell, TeliaSonera’s Kazakhstan subsidiary. Earlier this month a Swedish newspaper also raised questions over a $200m deal in 2012 by KCell to buy telecoms infrastructure from companies owned by Karim Massimov, head of Kazakhstan’s presidential administration.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Almaty raided the HQ of London-listed Kazakh paper-maker Kagazy and accused it of being involved in various illegal dealings including tax evasion, the company said. Kagazy is currently the focus of a legal dispute in a London court. The company said that raids in Almaty may be linked to the case.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Demand from Russia has doubled Georgia’s wine exports, media reported quoting the Georgian agriculture ministry. Russia lifted a ban on importing Georgian wine this year. Relations between the neighbours had dipped to breaking point under Georgia’ former President Mikheil Saakashvili but have since recovered.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh financier Bulat Utemuratov has agreed to buy the Kazakh government’s 80% stake in Termibank and a 16% stake in Alliance Bank, media reported. The government will still own a 51% stake in Alliance Bank and a 98% stake in BTA Bank which it has yet to find a buyer for.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italian officials are investigating whether the Kazakh government pressured energy company ENI to influence ministers in Italy into deporting the wife and daughter of fugitive opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov in May, media reported. An Italian TV interview with an anonymous ENI manager triggered the investigation.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Yet another fire has destroyed a market on the outskirts of Almaty, media reported. Reports said this was probably the sixth major fire to destroy a market in Almaty since November. Tension is increasing as the market traders, often poorer Kazakhs and migrants from China, accuse the authorities of not doing enough to protect them.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bulat Utemuratov, a close associate of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has agreed to buy the government’s share in Temirbank and most of its stake in Alliance Bank for up to $1b, local media reported.
This is important for Mr Nazarbayev who wants to change Kazakh banking. It is made more important since Halyk Bank, owned by his son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, declined to buy the government’s stake in BTA Bank in November.
Mr Utemuratov is a willing ally of Mr Nazarbayev and was an obvious purchaser of the Kazakh government’s 80% stake in Temirbank and a 16% stake in Alliance. This leaves Samruk-Kazyna with a 51% stake in Alliance Bank.
One question is why didn’t Mr Utemuratov buy the government’s entire stake in Alliance Bank? Another is, what is he going to do with the banks when he does finish the deal?
In any case, it is a step forward for Kazakh officials who plan large changes in Kazakhstan’s banking system. The government bought the stakes in the banks in January 2009 to stop them from collapsing during the global financial crisis and has been looking to cash them in for some time.
As well as selling its stakes, it wants the banks to reduce their proportions of bad debt and also to unite their private pension funds under one scheme run by the Central Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unable to sell equipment that had belonged to Uzdunrobita, the Uzbek subsidiary of Russia’s MTS, media reported that the state’s Uzbektelecom has taken charge of it. MTS closed down Uzdunrobita last year after the authorities started investigating it for tax evasion.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Swedish newspaper accused telecoms company TeliaSonera of making unethical deals in Kazakhstan. TeliaSonera bought telephone networks from two companies with close connections to the head of the Kazakh presidential administration, Karim Massimov, in 2012 for about $200m, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)