Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh banknote wins international award

MAY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In terms of banknote sophistication — artwork and anti-forgery security — Kazakhstan is world class.

The International Bank Note Society named Kazakhstan’s 5,000 tenge note, worth around $33, as the best new issue of 2012.

This is the second consecutive year that Kazakhstan has won the award after its new 10,000 tenge note won in 2012.

With the help of the British banknote printer De La Rue, the Kazakh Central Bank designed and launched the new 5,000 tenge banknote on New Year’s Eve 2011/12.

The judges praised its bright orange colour as well as the banknote’s designs, including an outline of the country, the iconic Soviet-built Hotel Kazakhstan in Almaty and Independence Statue in the centre of the city.

The note also contains various anti-forgery watermarks and other devices that improve its security.

Unusually for banknotes, the 5,000 tenge note, which beat Canada’s 50 dollar bill and the Jersey 100 pound bill for the award, does not carry the image of a famous national person.

If banknote art and sophistication is a sign of a confident, growing economy that is increasingly proud of its currency and aware of its national symbols, then Kazakhstan is definitely moving in the right direction.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakhstan to issue $1b debt

MAY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has invited banks to manage a $1b debt issue, its first since 2007, finance minister Bolat Zhamishev told media. The announcement is significant as Kazakhstan is cash-rich from oil production; the debt issue will act as a barometer of the market’s interest in Kazakh debt.

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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazkommertsbank posts positive results

MAY 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest bank, reported a 15% rise in net profit in Q1 2013 compared to Q1 2012. The increase was due to higher interest rate payments and a fall in bad debt. Kazkommertsbank’s results are important for the Kazakh banking sector which is still recovering from the 2009 global economic crisis.

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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakh legal cases unravel in London

MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — London is the global centre of dispute resolution.

Its courts, solicitors, barristers and the law itself are respected around the world attracting businesses and individuals who need to settle commercial disputes.

Now, a study of documents over the past five years has shown that Kazakhstan-focused legal disputes generated the second highest number of cases, the London-based Independent newspaper reported. Dispute resolution in London can be used as a rough gauge of a country’s economic activity.

According to the report, only the United States has been the focus of so many litigation issues.

Of the 705 litigation cases covered since 2008 by the Commercial Court, the business dispute arm of the High Court in London, 86 related to Kazakhstan. Russia, which has had more high-profile and expensive cases, recorded 75 cases.

The biggest Kazakhstan-oriented case to pass through the British courts in the past five years was the dispute involving Mukhtar Ablyazov who was accused of defrauding BTA Bank, where he had been chairman, of billions of dollars.

Ablyazov is currently on the run, having been charged with perjury last year. Earlier this year, the High court ordered Ablyazov to re-pay $2b.

According to the Independent’s report, the BTA/Ablyazov dispute case generated 11 individual cases, employing at least 50 solicitors.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Trial of Islamic terrorists begins in Kazakhstan

MAY 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The trial of six men accused of links to radical Islamic groups and of plotting to blow up landmarks and assassinate senior officials began in Astana. The trial is being held behind closed doors. Kazakhstan has been battling an increase in Islamist-linked bomb attacks since 2011.

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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakh Trio takes over ENRC

MAY 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government and the three founders of ENRC, Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Pathokh Chodiev, have offered shareholders in the London-listed miner ENRC shares in rival Kazakhmys and cash, Reuters reported. The offer values ENRC, the subject of a fraud investigation, at $5b.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Railway to link Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan

MAY 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, opened a rail link that bypasses the Soviet network in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is often regarded as an awkward neighbour because of its unilateral tendencies. The rail link is designed to link up with Iran.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

UniCredit sells ATF Bank in Kazakhstan

MAY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deal has been rolling around in and out of public view for most of the year but it now looks as if it’s finally been wrapped up.

KazNitrogenGaz, an investment group officially owned by Galimzhan Yesenov, has bought ATF Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s biggest banks, for $500m from UniCredit, an Italian bank, media reported.

This is a lower figure than previously touted around.

It’s also telling because it’s about a quarter of the price that UniCredit paid for it in 2007.

When UniCredit bought ATF Bank, Kazakhstan’s economy was on the up and banks were, relatively casually, handing out loans to Kazakh consumers and businesses. When the global economy slowed and faltered in 2008, these loans went bad and Kazakh banks, including ATF Bank, took a large hit.

According to reports, 40 percent of ATF Bank’s loan portfolio is still regarded as non-performing.

With the Kazakh economy rebounding in the past five years, the government is preparing to sell off majority stakes in four banks it was forced to rescue from bankruptcy in 2009.

The buyers of the state’s stakes in these banks are wealthy Kazakhs and buying back ATF Bank from UniCredit could be an extension of that plan. The 31-year-old Mr Yesenov is relatively obscure but behind him is his powerful father-in-law, Akhmetzhan Yesimov. That is where the real power and drive for buying ATF Bank may lie.

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

Unofficial lesbian wedding celebrated in Kazakhstan

APRIL 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A photo essay on the prominent society website voxpopuli.kz of a lesbian couple celebrating their unofficial wedding in Karaganda, an industrial city in central Kazakhstan, caused a stir. Like its neighbours, Kazakhstan’s society is conservative and homosexuals are marginalised. Homosexuality was illegal in Kazakhstan until 1997.

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

Boston bomber links become a problem for Kazakhstan

MAY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The arrest of two Kazakh teenagers studying in the US with links to one of the alleged Boston bombers has triggered a major image problem for Kazakhstan.

Prosecutors in Boston charged Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19-years old, with obstructing the course of justice by trying to dispose of a rucksack and a laptop belonging to their friend, Dzhokhar Tsarnayev.

Three people died when Tsarnayev and his brother allegedly planted a series of bombs at the finishing line of the Boston marathon in April.

Now Kazakhstan has been dragged into the story.

But, while Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were university friends of Tsarnayev their backgrounds were very different. Tsarnayev, an ethnic Chechen, was an economic migrant who had settled in the US to build a better life.

Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were ethnic Kazakhs from relatively privileged backgrounds. Both were enjoying a relaxed period of study in Boston before heading home.

Regardless of the differences, Kazakhstan now has to deal with the image problem of Kazakhs caught up with bomb attacks in the US.

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)