Kazmunaigas considers Chinese bonds, interest rates stay at 16.5%

On June 5, a court in Taldykorgan sentenced to prison the nine defendants in the murder case of 16-year-old Sherzat Polat. Two men were sentenced to 20 and 23 years, while others will serve between 1.5 and 15 years in prison. The trial was streamed online and captured the attention of the population, horrified by the CCTV images of the cold-blooded murder in October last year.

Inflation is poised to continue in double figures, the Central Bank said on June 5, as it kept interest rates unchanged at 16.5%. Due to the country’s dependency on oil exports and the current slump in oil prices, the regulator said inflation forecasts for this year and the next are expected to be within 10.5-12.5% and 9.5-11.5% respectively.

Askhat Khassenov, the CEO of state-owned Kazmunaigas, said that the flagship oil and gas company could look to China’s debt market to raise cash. In an interview with Bloomberg on June 4, Khassenov said that “dim sum and panda bonds offer rather good conditions.” Khassenov added that if the debt is issued in yuan, the company will convert the proceeds into US dollars. According to Khassenov, Kazmunaigas plans to invest $1 billion this year.

Kazakhstan’s Agency for the Regulation of the Financial Market approved on June 3 two transactions. Kaspi.kz shareholder Vyacheslav Kim was finally cleared to take over Alatau City Bank (formerly known as Jusan Bank). The bank announced the name change last week, seemingly starting anew, after a 2022 investigation showed that it was linked to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

On the same day, the Agency gave the green light to an arm-in-arm transaction by which Murat Safin bought a stake in his daughter’s insurance company TransOil. Safin owns Buzachi Neft, which operates a number of oil fields in the western Mangistau region and came into the spotlight in mid-2023, when an exploration project led to a massive methane leak. Courts imposed a 2.2 billion tenge ($4.3 million) fine for environmental damages.

PSA, the government agency in charge for the country’s productions-sharing agreements in the oil sector, reportedly froze construction work on a key gas processing project at the Karachaganak field in mid-May. Few details emerged from the Upstream article on June 2. KPO, the international consortium developing the Karachaganak field, planned to build a $3.5 billion gas processing plant with an annual capacity of 4 billion cubic meters. An ongoing spat between the government and KPO shareholders could be at the root of the latest decision.

Space debris could be seen streaking across the Astana sky on the night of June 5. The ministry of digital development and aerospace industry said that the event was “a spectacular, but safe process.” Speculations later claimed that the burned traces in the sky were the remains of a booster block of a space rocket launched from China.

Uzbekistan generated a record 1.1 billion kWh from solar and wind sources in May, the ministry of energy reported on June 2. Uzbekistan’s solar power deployment has been considered a “boom” by experts, who note that the government should work on upgrading the grid to ensure an efficient use of the extra capacity.

Uzbekistan’s men’s national soccer team qualified on June 5 for the next World Cup for the first time in history. Uzbekistan secured the second spot in the qualifying rounds in the Asian groups behind Iran. The so-called White Wolves are the first Central Asian national team to enter the most prestigious competition in soccer.

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