Company News -- Kazakhstan Weekly News

Power

AES Sogrinsk TETS has announced that it will hold a tender to select an accounting company to perform audits of the company’s activities for the 1999 fiscal year, the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper reported. The power plant is one of several operated by the US-based AES Corporation in the East-Kazakhstan region.

All accounting companies operating in Kazakhstan that possess a valid license and experience in auditing in accordance with US GAAP standards are welcome to participate. Tender bids, which will be accepted until December 26, should be submitted to the office of AES Sogrinsk TETS in Ust-Kamenogorsk. (Interfax, Golden Eagle Partners)

Metals & Mining

Credit Lyonnais, a French bank, will provide a loan of USD 100 million to Kazakhmys, Kazakhstan’s biggest copper producer, to finance and develop production facilities, company officials said at an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Thursday.

Kazakhmys’ president, Vladimir Kim, said that the agreement with Credit Lyonnais “was in the works for a fairly long time and shows that western creditors have confidence in the corporation.”

As reported earlier, the government of Kazakhstan plans to put a 35% state stake in Kazakhmys under the trust management of the company in exchange for a three-year loan of USD 100 million. (Interfax, Bloomberg)

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The U.S.-based ABN Financial Group LLC has bought 49% of the stock in Kazakhstan’s Yelrovo company. This Kazakhstani company is based in the Karaganda region and is developing an ore deposit in the centre of the Akmola region.

Yelrovo’s CEO, Askar Orzabaev, told Interfax that the U.S. company has promised to invest USD 20 million in the development of the Atansorskoye deposit and the building of an ore-enrichment factory over the next five years.

The deposit currently produces 100,000 tonnes of ore a month. As much as 20,000 tonnes is sent each month to the Karaganda-based company Ispat Karmet, Kazakhstan’s largest rolled-metal producer. (Interfax, Bloomberg)

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Kazakhstan’s largest producer of alumina, Aluminium of Kazakhstan, will increase its charter capital to KZT 6 billion from its current value of about KZT 5.8 billion. This decision was made at the annual shareholders’ meeting. As of today, the capital is divided into 58,271,750 shares, each having a face value of KZT 100. The shares are owned by 3,853 shareholders, including 3,830 individuals who hold 5,408,711 preferred shares, and 24 legal entities which hold 52,863,039 common shares.

The increased capital will be divided into 54,591,289 common shares and 5,408,711 preferred shares with a face value of KZT 100.

At the shareholders’ meeting it was decided to register the fifth issue of shares in the volume of KZT 5.8 billion. The number of common shares will be 52,939,396 and preferred shares will account for 5,408,711. The face value of the shares is KZT 100.

The shareholders also decided to pay 1998 dividends on preferred shares at the volume of 10% of the face value of the shares or KZT 54 million. For the first time the shareholders decided to pay dividends on common stock – KZT 0.93 per share. Thus, the total dividend due on common stock is KZT 49.2 million. The payment will start on 3 February 2000. (Interfax)

Oil & Gas

The joint-venture Tengizchevroil (TCO) expects to reach a total 1999 output of 9.8 million tonnes of oil, according to TCO’s director, Mendigali Sappaev. The enterprise, which operates the giant Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan, has reached a production level of 26,000 tonnes of crude per day. It plans to increase that level to 33,000 tonnes per day next year, with a total year 2000 output forecast of 12 million tonnes.

Tengizchevroil is a joint venture between Chevron, ExxonMobil, Kazakhoil, and LUKArco. (Interfax, Golden Eagle Partners)

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