Company News -- Kazakhstan Weekly News

Oil & Gas

The common and preferred shares in the open joint-stock company UzenMunaiGas were floated for the first time on the KASE (non-listing board) on 1 September. The company, which is a KazakhOil subsidiary, is operating the Uzen oil field, the second largest in the country, based in the west of Kazakhstan. It has an authorised capital of over KZT 6bn (around USD 45m) which is divided into common and preferred shares with a face value of KZT 1,000 each. The company’s major activities include the production, transportation, and processing of oil and gas. (KASE)

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The subsidiaries of the national oil and gas company KazakhOil are reported to have recovered together over 3.6 billion tonnes of oil in the first 8 months of 1999, up 3.8% compared with the same period of 1998. Therefore, they have exceeded the planned figure by 133,100 tonnes. According to a press release from KazakhOil, 70.5% of the recovered crude was shipped to foreign markets and 29.5% to the domestic market. The production costs of 1 tonne of crude fell 25.5% YoY to KZT 2,243 in 1H99. KazakhOil’s subsidiaries include KazakhOil-Emba (which was a result of the merger of TenizMunaiGas and EmbaMunaiGas last June) and UzenMunaiGas. (KASE)

Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev seems to have responded to the growing allegations of the possible sale by Kazakhstan's government of part of its stake in Tengizchevroil (TCO), by saying in an interview with journalists late last week that this sale is not an acute issue today. He added, however, “if there is a need, we will, naturally, raise investment by selling part of our shares in TCO.” He stressed that “this will be transparent” and gave assurances that Kazakhstan will receive “a fair price.” Meanwhile, the president of the Chevron Oil Company, Richard Matzke, told a journalist in Atyrau last week that Kazakhstan's government has informed Chevron of its intention with regard to TCO. (Interfax)

Telecommunications

At their general meeting held on 31 August 1999, Kazakhtelecom’s shareholders declared that they will pay a dividend of 30% of the par value of shares payable for 1998 to the holders of the company's preferred shares. The shareholders decided that the payment will begin on 31 December 1999 and be complete on 1 April 2000. The deadline for the registration of holders of the preferred shares that have the right to receive the 1998 dividend is 31 December 1999. The shareholders endorsed Kazakhtelecom’s audited financial statement for 1998 and approved Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent auditor for 1999-2000. (KASE)

Banks

The bank TuranAlem has signed a co-operation memorandum with the head of the Karaganda region (in the north of Kazakhstan), Mazhit Esenbaev. According to Esenbaev, the Karaganda region is primarily interested in attracting funds to develop small and mid-sized businesses and creating jobs. The strategic objective of TuranAlem is to establish a universal bank offering a wide range of banking and non-banking services, said its chairman Erzhan Tatishev. He noted that TuranAlem views the large industrial Karaganda region as having great potential for the bank and added that the bank's branches in this region are "most profitable and stable." The bank boasts that it is number two among commercial Kazakhstani banks in terms of attracted assets. It has about 30,000 large corporate clients and over 500,000 individual depositors. TuranAlem accounts for 20-25% of the bank deposits in Kazakhstan. (Interfax)

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