DEC. 19 (The Conway Bulletin) – French train manufacturer Alstom delivered the first of 40 Prima T8 AZ8A freight locomotives, built at its plant in Astana, to a depot near Baku, Azerbaijan. The locomotives will operate along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route, linking Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, a new trade corridor for goods crossing Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018
DEC. 19 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank approved a $100m loan to Uzbekistan specifically to improve life in the cities of Kagan, Chartuk and Yangiyule, media reported. This is the first urban development programme approved by the World Bank. It said that 40% of the country’s urban population lives in medium-sized cities that have often fallen into disrepair.
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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018
DEC. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Georgian Healthcare Group (GHG) signed a deal with Jordan-based Biolab, a subsidiary of Integrated Diagnostics Holdings (IDH) to open a 7,500sqm “mega laboratory” in Tbilisi, the biggest in the region. Under the deal, Biolab will take a 10% stake in the laboratory, a management fee and a slice of the laboratory’s profits in return for providing training and management services. IDH is also listed in London and provides healthcare services in Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria.
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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018
NOV. 5 2018 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s Pres. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to sue Belgorkhimprom, the Belarusian company that built the Garlyk potash plant. The plant was supposed to be the biggest in Central Asia with a capacity of 720,000 tonnes/year. Since it opened, though, in March 2017, it has produced a fraction of this. No official reason on why the plant’s output has been so low has been given. Belgorkhimprom has said that it hasn’t been paid for the construction of the plant.
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— This story was first published in issue 391 of the Conway Bulletin on Nov. 11 2018.
OCT. 8 (The Conway Bulletin) – France’s Bouygues has signed a deal with the Uzbek government to build a 100m euro “tourist zone” near Bukhara, Uzbek media reported. The deal, announced during a visit by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Paris, has not been commented on by Bouygues, one of France’s biggest constructors.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 10 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will resume sending gas to Russia in January, Alexei Miller, the Gazprom CEO, was quoted by official Turkmen media as saying on a trip to Ashgabat, giving Turkmenistan’s Pres. Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov a much-needed political boost (Oct. 10).
Turkmen gas exports to Russia were slashed in 2014 during a row over pricing and cut altogether in 2016 during a Russian economic downturn that was triggered by an energy price collapse.
The cut hurt Turkmenistan economically and left it overly reliant on China as its only gas supply client. Its economy has also been hard hit by the drop in energy prices. The economic news coming out of Turkmenistan has been dire, with Mr Berdymukhamedov being forced to cut Soviet-era subsidies on utilities.
Mr Miller said exact details of new gas imports needed to be worked out.
“The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the gas sphere is valid until the end of 2018. It was paused for commercial reasons and will be renewed by the end of 2018,” Mr Miller was quoted as saying by official Turkmen media. “In this regard, we discussed the resumption of the procurement of Turkmen gas by Gazprom, which will start in January 2019.”
Analysts speculated on the timing of Russia resuming gas exports from Turkmenistan. Some said that it was linked to Russia’s efforts to dampen the increased lure of gas sales to Europe from the region.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 13 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will send Afghanistan 300MW along new transmission lines to Herat and Kandahar, Turkmen official media reported by quoting officials. It said that a formal deal had been agreed and will be officially signed by the various leaders in February. Turkmenistan already exports electricity and gas to Afghanistan. Analysts have said that an integrated regional power export network can act as a cornerstone for boosting regional trade.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 12 (The Conway Bulletin) – UzAutoTrailer plans to increase the capacity of its truck-manufacturing plant to 3,000 vehicles per year up from the current 1,500 vehicles, Uzbek media reported. The plant opened this year in the city of Jambay, near Samarkand, and currently produces Russian Kamaz trucks.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
>> Kazakhstan has talked up the IPOs of several large state-owned companies this year but, James Kilner asks, where are they?
Was that the sound of the starting gun or was it another decoy on Kazakhstan’s journey to selling off 25% stakes in a handful of its most senior companies?
I’m talking about, of course, news this week that Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan nuclear agency, plans to list GDRs in London.
GDRs, or to use their full title — Global Depository Receipts, are a financial instrument that allows companies to sell share certificates, issued by depositary banks, to professional and institutional investors. Issuing GDRs, rather than selling off shares, is, to some degree, a more limited version of a full IPO. Access to the stock is controlled; the market is ring-fenced.
Much of the reporting of Kazatomprom’s announcement that it intended to sell off GDRs on the London Stock Exchange was excitable, exclaiming that the ‘People’s IPO’ in Kazakhstan was finally happening. But is it? Yes, selling GDRs in London will dilute the state’s ownership of Kazatomprom but this is still a long way from an IPO on an international exchange. In January this year, Kazmunaigas, the Kazakh state energy company, said that it was buying back its GDRs in London so that it could prepare for a full listing.
Does this then mean that Kazatomprom has ditched the idea of a full IPO? Where does this leave other Kazakh companies contemplating IPOs, among them Air Astana which is part-owned by BAE Systems? And what of the Astana International Finance Centre (AIFC) – President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Great White Hope on the Kazakh steppe? Since it was officially launched in July at the site of the former EXPO in Astana, the news flow has gone quiet. It was supposed to carry an equivalent 25% Kazakh listing to match any international listing.
But despite the fanfare and the general upbeat notices from Kazakh officials, the anticipated IPOs have failed to materialise this year. Kazatomprom talked up a listing on the AIFC at the same time that it lists its GDRs sell in London but the details have yet to be released.
There is still time, of course, but Kazakhstan and its companies need to shift up a gear if they are going to hit the expectations that they have drummed up. The IPO market has weakened over the year, possibly delaying Kazakhstan’s IPO plans, but Kazatomprom’s GDR listing is not enough to give ordinary investors a decent buy-in into Kazakhstan and Kazakh companies.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 9 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will launch construction of Uzbekistan’s first nuclear power plant on Oct. 19, Russian news agencies reported. The $11b nuclear power plant is to be built in south-central Uzbekistan on the border of the Navoi-Bukhara regions and is likely to start operations by 2028. Importantly, the nuclear power station will also bind Russia and Uzbekistan more closely together.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018