Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 18
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Kazakh State fund Samruk-Kazyna JSC is considering an option to place from 15 to 25% of KazMunaiGas (KMG) share within the framework of the IPO, which will be focused on attracting retail investors, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media.
Halyk Finance was chosen as the local bookrunner of KazMunaiGas. KMG, which produced almost 500,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent last year, is the biggest prize for investors in the former Soviet Union’s state-owned corporate assets. Its reserves stand at 683 mln tonnes of oil (approximately 5bn barrels). The company owning a 17 per cent stake in the giant Kashagan oilfield reported earnings of $3.7bn on revenues of $14.75bn before interest taxes, depreciation and amortisation in 2017.
“JSC Samruk-Kazyna specifically focuses on retail investors in order to raise the investor base. This placement will be very similar to the “People’s IPO”. The plan is to place 25 percent of share for the first half of next year, but it all depends on demand; 15 or 25%,” Acting Chairman of the Board of Halyk Finance, Murat Temirkhanov said.
KMG’s biggest shareholder is Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. It controls 90 per cent of the company with the remainder owned by the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
Tim Bennet, chairman of the board of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), previously reported that the placement of KazMunaiGaz shares at the AIX platform was tentatively scheduled for Q2 2020, but it was not ruled out that the listing could be postponed due to the interests of the companies.
The AIFC was officially launched in December 2018. It is designed to become banking and trading hub for all of Central Asia.
The comprehensive privatization plan of Kazakhstan for 2016-2020 states that it is planned to hold an SPO of Kazakhtelecom, an IPO of the national railway company Kazakhstan Railways, the national oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, Air Astana and others.
Outside of Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s biggest economy, KazMunaiGas runs 900 filing stations across Eastern Europe under the Rompetrol brand.
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