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Eurasia
February 16, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
planned IPOs for 2018-2020, in order to make the companies more attractive to foreign investors.
KMG’s potential valuation, according to banking sources, could stand at approximately $6bn. The company accounts for 28% of total crude oil and gas condensate output in Kazakhstan.
Other names on the Kazakh government’s privatisation list are national carrier Air Astana and soon-to-be near monopolist of the local telecoms market Kazakhtelecom.
In hope of drawing in liquidity to the newly launched
Astana stock exchange, the government wishes
to also partially list the firms domestically. The government hopes to provide a boost to its Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), where the bourse is located. The AIFC was officially launched in December 2018. It is designed to become a banking and trading hub for all of Central Asia.
Kazakhstan’s capital market may go through major change in 2019 having been hooked up to the Clearstream international settlements system in July 2018. Russia made a similar reform in 2012 and saw foreign investors flood into its bond and stock markets.
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