Aug. 2 (The Bulletin) — The Tajik government said that it setting up a special agency to raise money for its headline Rogun Dam project. In an interview with the Asia-Plus website, finance minister Faiziddin Kahhorzoda said that Tajikistan was looking for grants to pay for the rest of the $3.9b project rather than raising more debt. In 2017 it sold Eurobonds worth $500m to fund the dam.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin
ALMATY/July 12 (The Bulletin) — US President Donald Trump backed away from imposing uranium tariffs on imports, giving Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium producer, a major boost.
Analysts said that they expected the uranium market to pick up after Mr Trump said that he disagreed with a US Commerce Department Investigation which had said uranium imports were a threat to US national security.
Kazatomprom and other producers said that talk of uranium imports as a threat to US national security was a smokescreen for protectionism. US uranium producers have been struggling to compete over the past few years.
Kazatomprom CEO Galymzhan Pirmatov said that a free market that isn’t tampered with is important for the global uranium market.
“Kazatomprom reiterates its longheld belief that intervention in any form is undesirable, as it can create significant distortion in an already fragile nuclear fuel market by incentivising uneconomic production that relies on government support,” he said.
The US is the world’s biggest uranium market and Kazakhstan is its biggest producer with an estimated 40% of the market.
Mr Trump’s decision took the market by surprise and uranium prices, which have been depressed since a tsunami knocked out the Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan in 2011, are expected to rise. Before the Fukushima accident, uranium had been sold at more than $70/pound. Now it is priced at around $25/pound.
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin
FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium producer, said that it would continue to reduce its output in what it said was a “market-centric” approach. Uranium prices have been suppressed since a tsunami in Japan in 2011 knocked out a nuclear power station and worried governments who cancelled other nuclear energy projects. In 2018, Kazatomprom produced 21,705 tonnes of uranium, down 7% from 2017. The Kazakh government sold a 15% stake in Kazatomprom last year on the London Stock Exchange in its most high-profile IPO to date.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
FEB. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Afghan company building part of the CASA-1000 power-line that will link Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with Pakistan said the project will be delayed for eight months because of a delay in deals to build substations in Pakistan and Tajikistan. CASA-1000 is being funded primarily by the World Bank and it is considered a vital project for the economies of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It was meant to be finished at the end of 2018.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — Foreign ambassadors and senior government officials in Kazakhstan opened the largest solar power plant in the region at Saran in the centre of the country. The $137m project was funded by the EBRD and has the capacity to generate 100MW of power. At the opening, Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev, said that the government wants to generate 3% of its power through renewable energy by 2020, 20% by 2030 and 50% by 2050.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
TASHKENT/JAN. 14 (The Conway Bulletin) — – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loaned $240m to Uzbekenergo to modernise its Talimarjan gas power plant in the south of the country.
The loan will be spent on installing 90MW combined cycle gas turbines. It is the largest single investment by the EBRD in Uzbekistan. The EBRD only re-entered Uzbekistan last year, after a break of 10 years, when it became clear that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was intent on opening up the country after years of isolation under the reclusive Islam Karimov.
“The investment will address a major issue for the region, namely the provision of uninterrupted and sustainable power supply, which will support economic growth and improve the wellbeing of the population,” the EBRD said in a statement.
The other joint funders on the project are the Asian Development Bank and the Uzbek Fund for Reconstruction and Development. The EBRD has invested a total of 1.3b euros in 70 projects in Uzbekistan.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
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
>> 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
OCT. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s nuclear agency Kazatomprom said that it was readying to list Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange. Kazakhstan has been talking up the prospect of listing a handful of its top state-owned companies on international stock markets this year although none have yet been confirmed.
>> See Comment on Page 2
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018