Tag Archives: business

94% of creditors support restructure plan says International Bank of Azerbaijan

JULY 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — More than 94% of International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) creditors supported a debt restructuring scheme, the bank said. It made the statement a few days after saying that it had won approval to go through with a controversial scheme that will see creditors lose 20% of their $3.3b investments. IBA said in May that it needed to restructure its debts.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Kazakh buys regional bank

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JULY 4 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh businessman Arif Babayev bought the Ukraine-based Region- Bank, renamed Sky Bank, for an undisclosed fee, Ukrainian media reported. Mr Babayev used to be the managing director of Kazkommertsbank, which has recently merged with Halyk Bank. He bought an initial 53.54% stake in Region-Bank in December 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Czech firm buys into Kyrgyz hydropower

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BISHKEK, JULY 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Liglass Trading, a Czech company, signed a deal with the Kyrgyz government to buy into a major hydropower project that Russia pulled out of in December 2015 after a drop in oil prices and US-led sanctions triggered an economic recession.

The deal means Liglass will pay $37m for a 50% stake in Upper Naryn HPP, the company created to build and operate the Akbulun and Naryn-1 hydropower plants. It will also build 10 smaller hydro stations by end-202o.

Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev hailed the deal.

“The arrival of large-scale private investment in Europe will serve as a strong signal to potential investors from around the world, confirming the readiness of Kyrgyzstan to create all the necessary conditions for doing business and effective implementation of mutually beneficial joint projects,” he was quoted as saying in a government press release.

RusHydro had planned to invest more than $700m into Kyrgyz hydropower before it quit in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Azerbaijan boosts gas imports from Russia

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russia’s Gazprom said that it was in negotiations with Azerbaijan to increase the amount of gas it sells it. The statement followed a meeting between the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller and the head of SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state- owned oil and gas company, Rovnag Abdullayev and highlights improved Azerbaijan-Russia relations. Azerbaijan started gas imports in September 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Lender targets Kazakhstan

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JULY 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — TWINO, the peer-to-peer loans company, said that it was going to start lending to Kazakh clients, a PR boost for Kazakhstan which has been trying to deflect from negative headlines about the rise of non- performing loans in its banking sector. TWINO, based in London, said that it was the first European peer-to-peer loans provider to lend to Kazakhstan. It already lends to Latvia. Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Georgia, Denmark, Mexico and Spain.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Russian tourists flock to Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia

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SUKHUMI/Georgia, JULY 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian tourists are flocking to beach resorts in Abkhazia at a greater rate than ever before, giving the breakaway Georgian region an economic boost.

Russian couples walk along Sukhumi’s beachfront promenade and sip Abkhaz wine in newly renovated restaurants. Russian is the main language heard on the streets, shops are filled with Russian products and Russian newspapers are available in local newsagents. The currency used is the Russian rouble.

Abkhazia looks, feels and sounds like a piece of Russia and local residents are, mainly, grateful.

A tourist guide in Novy Afon, around 20km north of Sukhumi told the Bulletin : “Thank God there are the Russians. Not only did they save us when the Georgians wanted to exterminate us but now they make our economy run through tourism.”

It declared independence from Georgia in 1992, triggering a war that killed and displaced thousands of people and lead to a de facto independence. In 2008 after a war with Georgia focused on its two rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia recognised them as independent. Only a handful of other countries looking to curry Russian favours followed.

Moscow subsidises Abkhazia’s state budget and has thousands of troops permanently deployed in the region.

Other than the military and the breakaway region’s administration, bankrolled by the Kremlin, there are few other jobs in Abkhazia, making Russian tourists so important.

And they are coming in their thousands, all via a border crossing with Russia to the north. Last year Avtandil Gartskiya, the tourism minister told the New York Times in an interview that he expected 1.5m tourists per year, up from less than 100,000 a decade ago.

By contrast, references to Georgia have been eradicated, or nearly.

The cuisine gives away Abkhazia’s Georgian connection. Georgia’s food icon, the Ajarian Khachapuri, a boat shaped crusty bread filled with melted cheese and egg, is a firm favourite with the Russian tourists. It’s been subjected to a rebrand, though, and is called ‘lodochka s yaizom’. In English, this simply means ‘boat with egg’.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Azerbaijan oil exports via BTC fall 11.8%

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JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s oil exports through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC) fell by 11.8% in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year to 13.174m tonnes, state-owned SOCAR said. This is significant as the BTC export route is Azerbaijan’s main thoroughfare for its oil, its most important commodity. No reason was given for the drop in oil exports.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Armenian Lydian secures more support

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JULY 4 2017 (The Bulletin) — Armenian gold miner Lydian said that it had secured another $25m loan from the Orion and Resource Capital funds, specialist mining creditors, to help pay for the construction of its operations at its Amsular site in the south of the country. Earlier this year it also secured a $50m loan for funding on the same project from ING Bank. Armenia has been looking to boost mining projects.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Uranium bank to open in August, says Kazakh President

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev said that a low-enriched Uranium bank will open in eastern Kazakhstan on Aug. 29. The project is being administered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is being promoted by Kazakh officials and Mr Nazarbayev as yet another contribution by Kazakhstan to world peace. On the day the uranium bank opens, Mr Nazarbayev intends to give out his first international award for nuclear disarmament. He already has his own peace award.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

New hydro power plant opens in Georgia

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — Adjaristsqali Georgia, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Power, said that it had completed the construction of the 186MW Shuakhevi Hydro Power Station in Georgia, one of the largest to be built in the last 50 years. Its finance partners for the project were the IFC (part of the World Bank) and Norway’s Clean Energy Invest. The project cost $420m to build and has been under construction since 2013. Speaking at the opening of the plant, Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said that power produced by the plant would be sold during winter, when there is traditionally a deficit. Georgia has been heavily investing in its hydropower capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)