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Eurasia
February 16, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 22
Trump, meanwhile, attempted to have the last word, saying in a tweet, sent out in English and Persian: "40 years of corruption. 40 years of repression. 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only #40YearsofFailure." "The long- suffering Iranian people deserve a much brighter future," he added.
Not surprisingly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, always quick on the
Kazakhstan ‘postpones’ oil company KMG's IPO plans to after 2019
bne IntelliNews
Those in the waiting room for a raft of big Kazakh initial public offerings (IPOs) have endured a torturous wait to date, and things appear to have got that much more frustrating with news that Kazakhstan has postponed plans to float shares in state-owned oil company KazMunayGaz (KMG) to beyond 2019.
Reuters on February 8 quoted two banking sources as saying that was the case.
The decision to postpone was reportedly driven by worsening market conditions amid a lack of investor appetite for stock offerings. Investors, it seems, are being put off by market uncertainties generated by the ugly combination of Brexit, US political tensions and the US-China trade war, along with the ongoing sanctions campaigns against Russia and Iran and the global economic slowdown.
First in many years
Kazakhstan’s first IPO in many years, featuring
draw when it comes to the Twittersphere, did
not let Trump have the last word, tweeting: “#40YearsofFailure to accept that Iranians will never return to submission. #40YearsofFailure to adjust US policy to reality. #40YearsofFailure to destabilize Iran through blood & treasure. After 40 yrs of wrong choices, time for @realDonaldTrump to rethink failed US policy.”
Touché?.
state-run uranium producer KazAtomProm, took place on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Astana International Exchange in November. The offering did not seem to go as well as Kazakh au- thorities made out, however. The outcome involved Kazakhstan’s state-run pension fund buying one- third of the 15% stake floated on the LSE.
In September, the Kazakh government invited international investment banks to pitch for roles in listing KMG in London.
In October, Royal Dutch Shell backed out of plans to buy a stake in KMG. The decision came following a due diligence process which included discussions on corruption risks at the company relating to the informal control over the company exercised by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev.
Kazakhstan hoped to sell small stakes in some of its largest state run companies ahead of its