JAN. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Gezhouba Group Cement Co has said it will open a new plant in Kazakhstan’s Kyzlorda region this year, media reported. Azernews quoted the company’s head, Lee Min, as saying that sales would be concentrated in the former Soviet Union and the Eurasian Economic Union.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Central Bank chief Daniyar Akishev defended his policy of keeping interest rates high by insisting that he was still pro-business. Speaking to reporters he said that the Central Bank’s main priority was to target inflation and then to consider cutting the cost of borrowing. Mr Akishev said that he wanted to see inflation at 5-7% this year and 4% by 2020.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 31 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan appears to be having a clear out within the ranks of its legal system after the sacking of three senior prosecutors. Almaty city prosecutor, Gabit Mirazov, and the deputy prosecutors of the Aktyubinsk region, Daniyar Syzdykov, and South-Kazakhstan oblast, Abil Kozhakhmetov, were sacked for various misdemeanours.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
ALMATY FEB. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — Air Astana, the Kazakh national airline that is preparing for an IPO this year, posted full-year results for 2017 that showed revenue growth of 22% and a profit of $39.1m.
The results will be a relief for Kazakh government officials after the airline, which is 51% owned by Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna and 49% by BAE Systems, posted a loss in 2016 for the first time.
In a statement, Air Astana CEO Peter Foster said that EXPO 2017, the international exposition hosted by Astana for three months from June, and a rise in the number of transit passengers using the new terminal at Nazarbayev Airport, also in Astana, had driven the growth.
“Transit business grew by 58% and is now 12% of total business. Our comparatively low unit cost has enabled us to successfully grow this business segment by being competitive in key overseas markets, such as Russia, China, India and the EU, and smaller high growth markets such as Ukraine, Georgia and Uzbekistan,” he said.
Revenue in 2017 was $754m and passenger numbers were 4.2m, up 12%.
Air Astana was incorporated in 2001, flying its first flights in 2002 and replacing the Soviet-tinged Air Kazakhstan as the national flag carrier.
Air Astana has also become vital for linking Kazakhstan with the rest of the world as a handful of major airlines, including KLM and British Airways, have dropped flying to Almaty or Astana.
Mr Foster, the Air Astana CEO, said that the company would continue to grow in 2018 but that costs were rising. “Cost control, whilst maintaining quality standards, will be the key challenge in the coming period,” he said.
Air Astana, alongside the high-profile atomic agency Kazatomprom and Kazakhtelecom, is part of a clutch of state-owned companies that Kazakhstan is selling off this year on the new Astana Stock Exchange and on an international exchange.
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>>This story was first published in issue 360 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan began a 1-month chairmanship of the UN Security Council for the first time. It is sitting at the Security Council as one of two representatives for the Asia-Pacific region. Its 2-year term as a UN Security Council member finishes at the end of 2017. Pres. Nazarbayev had set serious precedent on Kazakhstan becoming the first Central Asian member of the Security Council.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 26 (The Conway Bulletin) — Germany’s Honorary Consul in west Kazakhstan, Peter Kreiger, has died, the German diplomatic service said. Kreiger was 54-years-old and was living in Atyrau. He had been Germany’s Honorary-Consul for West Kazakhstan since October 2010 and worked as a consultant in the oil and gas sector. Media suggested that he had died of a heart attack.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japan’s Toshiba Corporation bought back a 10% stake in the bankrupt US nuclear power station builder Westinghouse Electric for $522m from the Kazakh nuclear agency Kazatomptom. Kazatomprom had bought the stake in 2007 for $540m. A put option in the contract meant that, although Westinghouse had been declared bankrupt in March 2017, Toshiba was forced to buy back the stake from Kazatomprom for a fixed price. Kazatomprom is the world’s biggest uranium producer. The state-owned company is preparing an IPO in 2018.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s Goldwind Science and Technology has won an order to build a wind power plant in Kazakhstan, it said. The 5MW plant will be built near Almaty and shows both Kazakhstan’s drive to develop green energy and also the increasing influence of China on the region’s commerce. The contract was given to Goldwind Science by China’s CITIC, the main contractor for the wind power plant. CITIC is a major constructor in Kazakhstan.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
DEC. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov promised to improve ties at a meeting in Bishkek. Relations between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan strained in October during a Kyrgyz presidential election when outgoing Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev accused Mr Nazarbayev of trying to meddle.
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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin
JAN. 5 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan-focused copper producer, was the biggest riser on the FTSE 350, according to the Times newspaper. It nearly doubled its share price in 2017 as the stock market bet on the price of copper.
The KAZ Minerals success story was something of an anomaly for the region. Central Asia Metals, its Kazakhstan metal producer bedfellow, barely broke even. The market judged its buy-up of a Macedonian zinc miner earlier in the year to be the wrong move.
And Centerra Gold, the Toronto-listed miner, also failed to shift significantly despite apparently making peace with the authorities in Kyrgyzstan over the status of the Kumtor mine. It shares dropped by 10% on Dec. 27 after it said that it had had to stop production at a mine in British Columbia because of a lack of water.
— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin