The management of Pavlodar Oil Refinery has appealed the Kazakh government's decision to transfer to the national oil company KazakhOil an 87.9% state stake in the refinery being managed by the US company CCL Oil under a concession contract. The information was disclosed by the acting president of CCL Oil Ray Adams at a press conference on July 20. The Kazakhstani government took the decision on the transfer of shares last month since, as was explained, the company has failed to meet its contractual obligations. Adams said this move broke the "letter and the spirit" of the concession agreement and CCL Oil intends to appeal to the Kazakhstan Supreme Court and ask for assistance from the US Embassy in Kazakhstan and the US government. KazakhOil said in a statement of July 20 that it would accept any decision made by courts (Reuters & Interfax)

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An extraordinary meeting of shareholders of KazakhstanCaspiShelf (KCS) held on Friday, July 24, approved a new reduced company budget for 1998. It suggests a zero profit with revenues and expenditures equal to KZT695m (US $9m). Nurlan Kapparov, President of KazakhOil, was elected to chair the KCS Supervisory Council. A well informed source in KCS said to Interfax that in view of reducing the company's authorised capital the meeting has ordered that the Board work out a mechanism to buy 10% of preferred shares (over 50,000 shares) from their holders in order to annul them later on. At present, 90% of the shares in KCS belong to KazakhOil. The authorised capital is KZT500m (US $6.5m).

Kazkommertsbank (KKB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have signed a US $40m loan agreement whereby the EBRD has an option of acquiring KKB shares for the first loan tranche and, therefore, may become a shareholder in KKB. The loan will be disbursed within three years in two tranches US $20m each. According to the head of the KKB international department Oleg Kanonenko, the EBRD wants to have not more than 10% of KKB shares. The percentage, however, may be less since it depends on the bank's capital. The bank's capital is currently US $112m, but it is sure to increase in three years, Kanonenko said. The loan will be used to finance medium and long term projects in industry, transport, construction, and services.(Reuters)

One more loan agreement worth DM 20,000,000 has been signed between Kazkommertsbank and the Germany state investment company Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellsschaft mbH. This loan is granted for 5 years and intended for investment in the private sector. Kazkommertsbank has become the first DEG borrower in Kazakhstan. (Reuters)

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On July 21, Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan (HSBK) signed a purchase agreement with the consortium Novaya Investitsionnaya Kompaniya (New Investment Company) for 10% of the shares in the HSBK. The consortium became the winner of a tender the day before having proposed KZT600m (some US $7.8m) for the package. (Reuters )

Chairman of Kazzinc Gennadii Zilberberg said that the company intends to put into operation the Maleevsky mine, which is 18 km from the town of Zyryanovsk, Eastern Kazakhstan. It will thereby increase its own proportion in raw material supplies to 70-75% from the current 50% and reduce the deliveries of concentrates from western countries. The explored reserves of the Maleevsky mine are estimated at 35 million tonnes. The required investment of US $65m will be provided by Swiss Glencore AG which owns 64% of Kazzinc. The construction is scheduled to be completed in 2001. The company is also working, jointly with the design institute Kazgiprotsvetmet, on a project to upgrade Zyryanovsk concentrating factory which will then almost double its processing capacity to 2-2.5 million tonnes per year. Again Glencore will provide investment of about US $15-17m. (Intefax)

The State Property and Privatisation Department has put up for Dutch auction a 31% state stake in the Aktubinsk-based Chromium Compounds Plant in the north-west of Kazakhstan. With a starting price for the lot (155,000 shares) of KZT17.006bn (US $220m) a minimal price will be KZT170.06m (US $2.2m). The participation fee is KZT15m (about US $194,000). The tender will be held in the city of Astana on August 25.