Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna plans to privatize 50 assets before the end of this year, Akhmetzhan Yessimov, Chairman of the Management Board, said during the special panel session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2018.

The event’s participants included Askar Mamin, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Imangali Tasmagambetov, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Russian Federation, and about 150 Russian and international investors.

The head of the Fund presented to the Russian and international business community the investment opportunities of Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna. In his speech, he noted that it is planned to privatize the Fund's six companies through IPOs by 2022, three of which Kazatomprom, Air Astana and Kazakhtelecom will go public this year.

Akhmetzhan Yessimov, Chairman of the Management Board, stressed:

“Samruk-Kazyna has the largest portfolio of high quality assets of Kazakhstan worth of USD 74 billion and covers various sectors of the economy. The privatisation programme provides an excellent opportunity to make profitable investments in our companies. In the current year, we plan to complete the privatisation of 50 assets, including both large, medium and small companies across various sectors of the economy. Our task in the short term is to increase the efficiency of companies, enhance portfolio management and ensure sustainable development. These key objectives are the basis for the new Development Strategy of the Fund until 2028.”

Potential investors showed a strong interest in the privatization programme and IPO, as well as large companies that will be sold to strategic investors. These are Samruk-Energy and Tau-Ken Samruk. The first is an energy holding with a full cycle for the production, transmission and sale of electricity. Samruk-Energy generates up to 30% of total electricity generation in Kazakhstan and has its own coal resource base, which accounts for about 40% of thermal coal production in the country. Mining company Tau- Ken Samruk implements projects at different stages of development for such metals as zinc, lead, copper, iron ore and gold.

In addition, the national companies KazMunayGas and Kazakhstan temir zholy are also attractive for investment.

Akhmetzhan Yessimov, Chairman of the Management Board, resumed:

“We are actively engaged in attraction of strategic partners to these projects. The state has created favorable conditions, including tax incentives and infrastructure construction. We have established an agrochemical cluster, where glyphosate project, which is not presented on the CIS market, is already being implemented. I believe that agrarians of Russia and Kazakhstan have mutual interest, and it would be good to implement this project together.”

A number of agreements with foreign investors were signed during Samruk-Kazyna Investor Day at SPIEF 2018. For example, United Chemical Company LLP and the largest gas processing and petrochemical company PJSC SIBUR Holding (Russia) agreed to acquire a stake in the Polypropylene project (construction of an integrated gas chemical complex in Atyrau region), NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC and Remlokomotiv JSC (Russia) signed a memorandum on the company's interest in the authorized capital of Tulpar-Talgo LLP. In addition, Samruk-Kazyna JSC and SAP (Germany) also signed memorandum.

Notes to editors:

KazMunayGas NC JSC is the largest oil and gas company that produces 23 million tons of oil and gas condensate, 7.5 billion cubic meters of natural and associated gas. The company provides 65% of oil transportation via main oil pipelines, as well as 95% of natural gas transportation.

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy NC JSC integrates transportation by rail, sea, air and road transport, using port and airport infrastructure, a network of warehouses and terminals. The company carries out 100% of cargo transportation by rail in Kazakhstan.