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Twelve state companies privatized in Kazakhstan in 2014

Business Materials 24 January 2015 10:34 (UTC +04:00)
Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund of Kazakhstan sold 12 assets in 2014 within the privatization program, Nurlan Rakhmetov, the chief financial officer and board member of Samruk-Kazyna told Trend.
Twelve state companies privatized in Kazakhstan in 2014

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 23
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund of Kazakhstan sold 12 assets in 2014 within the privatization program, Nurlan Rakhmetov, the chief financial officer and board member of Samruk-Kazyna told Trend.

Within the plan, Samruk-Kazyna was to put out 64 of its non-core assets for sale in 2014, according to Rakhmetov. He said this was a quite difficult task, since the program itself was adopted in May and it was necessary to carry out all intra-corporate procedures, value appraisal and etc. for the companies within a six-month period.

"But we believe that we have implemented the plan and coped with the work," Rakhmetov said. "The planned number of companies was put out for sale, except 2-3 companies which were not put out for sale for the objective reasons."

Some 12 of the companies put out for sale, were sold by late 2014. The proceeds from their sale stood at 4.120 billion KZT, while the appraised value was 2.5 billion KZT.

"That's around 65 percent more than the assessed value was obtained," he said. "This is just the effect of trading. If the companies were sold to anyone directly on the assessed value, the amount would be less."

The bidding was not announced on a number of companies because other shareholders of these companies have the right of preemption. The sales terms on the other 12 companies are still agreed in accordance with the right of preemption. According to the law in Kazakhstan, in case of selling the shares by one shareholder in a private limited company, this shareholder must first offer it to other shareholders.

The bidding on the rest of the companies was also announced, but either no buyers were found or the bidding has not been completed yet.

He said that the companies rendering the services to the railroad are in great demand as part of the privatization program.

"The reason is that the railway is quite a regular customer," he said. "These companies are stable. The bidding on these companies was conducted very well."

The privatization program is implemented upon the president's instructions in Kazakhstan. It is scheduled for 2014- 2016.

Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund was created in accordance with the decree of the President of Kazakhstan in 2008 to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the national economy.

It brings together almost all state-owned assets of Kazakhstan and manages these assets on behalf of the government. KazMunaiGas NC JSC, the railway operator - Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC, Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company JSC (KEGOC), communication operator Kazakhtelecom JSC, Kazatomprom JSC National Atomic Company are among these assets.

Edited by CN

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