FEB. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will sell part of its national post office, energy grid company KEGOC and power generating firm Samruk-Energo through IPOs by the end of the year, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said. These will be the first of the so-called ‘People’s IPOs’ when state assets will float on the Kazakh domestic stock exchange.
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(News report from Issue No. 27, published on Feb. 14 2011)
FEB. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia is considering an IPO to sell off 25% of both its state oil and gas company and the company distributing electricity around the capital Tbilisi, Reuters quoted the Georgian energy minister, Alexander Khetaguri as saying. Georgia plans to use the cash to build hydroelectric power stations.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
FEB. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Oxus Gold, the only publicly listed mining company operating primarily in Uzbekistan, said it had agreed to sell its 50% stake in its mines to its Uzbek partners. Oxus Gold is listed on London’s AIM. It did not say how much it had agreed to sell its stake in the Amantaytau Goldfields for.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
FEB. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The CEO of Kazakh mining company ENRC, Felix Vulis, has said he will quit the company for personal reasons. ENRC is one of the biggest mining companies in the world. Mr Vulis has been CEO since August 2009. He will remain in the job until the London-listed company has found an alternative CEO.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
FEB. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-based Centerra Gold increased proven and probable gold estimates at its Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan by 24%. It also said the lifespan of the mine, vital for Kyrgyzstan’s economy, had lengthened by two years to 2021. In 2009, Kumtor accounted for a quarter of Kyrgyzstan’s total industrial output.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
JAN. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia and Iran introduced a visa-free regime for citizens staying less than 45 days. The visa-free deal was struck in November. Relations have steadily improved between the two countries and last year a twice weekly air service started between Tbilisi and Tehran.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Unconfirmed press reports say Irish police have detained former Kyrgyz energy minister Saparbek Balkibekov in Dublin. Kyrgyzstan is understood to have asked Ireland to extradite Balkibekov to stand trial for corruption and theft.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh miner Kazakhmys wants to raise $600m through a secondary listing in Hong Kong this year, media quoted unnamed sources as saying. Kazakhmys is already listed in London. In 2010, the Kazakh government increased its stake in Kazakhmys to 26%.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 31 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has delayed approving plans for the second phase of the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea because plans put forward by the Eni-led consortium developing it are too expensive, oil and gas minister Sauat Mynbayev said. Kashagan is due to start commercial production in 2012. The second phase would push oil production up to 1m barrels/day.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – US gold miner Spectral Capital said it had paid $200m for a 65% stake in a “vast” gold deposit in Kazakhstan. It did not give any more specifics about the deposit or who owns the other 35%. Spectral Capital bought a large gold deposit in Siberia last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)