At its next board session, the National Bank of Kazakhstan will issue a license for banking operations to CITIBANK Kazakhstan. (Interfax) CitiBank Kazakhstan has a capital of KZT600m (US $7.853m) which is fully paid in. With the new bank, Kazakhstan has 77 second-tier banks including 3 state banks, 1 interstate bank, 21 banks with foreign interests (including non-resident bank subsidiaries). In addition, there are 13 representative offices of foreign banks, which, according to the Kazakhstan law, may open banks after one year of operation, 36 Lombard, 2 credit partnerships, and 24 other organisations effectuating banking operations.

According to the information department of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, shareholders of the coal producer Borly have taken a decision that no dividend should be paid on both common and preferred shares for 1997 and the first quarter of 1998 due to past year losses and the necessity to improve the financial state of the company. As of January 1, 1998, the company has receivables of KZT687.9m (about US $9m) and payables of KZT1,172.2m (US $15.3m). The 1997 company production output increased by 8.7% in comparison to 1996 while stripping increased 34.0%. In the first quarter of 1998, the output increased 3.9% against the same period of 1997 and reached 1,256,600 tonnes of coal.

JSC Borly was established in April 1996 by a governmental resolution. The government holds 98.01% of company's authorised capital (equivalent of US $9.05m which is fully paid-in). The remaining shares belong to employees. The company is included in the Blue Chip Privatisation Programme. Both preferred and common shares of the company have been traded on the KASE since December 1997.(Reuters)