Azerbaijan, Baku, June 18 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Kazakh Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Erbolat Dosayev does not exclude the possibility of increasing the state's share of the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), Novosti-Kazakhstan reported.
"To some extent I think we can ...sharply increase the state share in ENRC," Dosayev said.
Meanwhile, the final decision on this issue will be taken when a market price and some more issues are determined, the Minister said.
"The government is considering ENRC as one of the most important mining assets of our country, so we suppose an active participation of the state in this company," Dosayev said.
However, according to the Minister, the government has not entered into deal on acquisition yet.
ENRC is a leading diversified natural resources group, performing integrated mining, processing, energy, logistics and marketing operations. The operations comprise: the mining and processing of chrome, manganese and iron ore; the smelting of ferroalloys; the production of iron ore concentrate and pellet; the mining and processing of bauxite for the extraction of alumina and the production of aluminium; the production of copper and cobalt; coal extraction and electricity generation; and the transportation and sales of the Group's products. The Group's production assets are largely located in the Republic of Kazakhstan; other assets, notably the Other Non-ferrous Division, are mainly located in Africa; the Group also has iron ore assets in Brazil.
Each of founders of ENRC (Alexander Mashkevich, Patokh Shodiev and Alican Ibragimov) holds 14.59 percent share of the company. The Kazakh government's share in the company is 11.65 percent. Some 26 percent of the company is owned by Kazakhmys corporation. Remaining 19 percent of shares are owned by minority shareholders.