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READ MORE EURASIA FEATURES ONLINE
40TH ANNIVERSARY OF IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS: Present-day US “wilder, ruder” says Ayatollah Khamenei
Iran has unveiled new murals of anti-American graffiti on the outside walls of the former US embassy compound in Tehran to mark the 40th anniversary of its capture by Islamic revolutionary students. The works include an ominous Mickey Mouse standing with a smoking gun in his hands and McDonald's food packaging with barbed wire sticking out instead of French fries. Another shows bats surrounding a US Global Hawk drone, shot down in June by Iran which claimed it was on a spying mission over its territory. One piece features a doctored US presidential seal with an added Star of David – seemingly a reference to Washington’s close ties with Iran’s arch-enemy Israel – and an eagle holding drug syringes and bombs. → https://tinyurl.com/vyww6gx
LONG READ: How Iran’s “Shadow Commander” Qasem Soleimani left home at 13 and took a stranglehold on the Middle East
Sometimes referred to as the “Shadow Commander”, Qasem Soleimani is much more than a feared major-general who rose from humble origins to become the mastermind that – a military thinktank concluded this week – has orchestrated an effective military advantage over the US and its allies in the Middle East. → https://tinyurl.com/vq64tyl
Turkmenistan exposed: Investors warned nation is “teetering on edge of catastrophe”
Turkmenistan is “teetering on the edge of catastrophe”
and investors should be careful about associating themselves with the isolated Central Asian nation. So says a report issued by British think tank Foreign Policy Centre.
→ https://tinyurl.com/ta2zc69
A further catalyst for the development of the domestic debt and equity markets will be a change in legislation, which currently prohibits banks from investing into the stock market. With new institutional interest in the stock exchange, this could add further liquidity to the market.
Over the next several months strategic stakes, often greater than 51%, in listed companies are being put up for auction, mainly in the industries of wine and vegetable oil production. However, numerous companies in the oil & gas industry are also slated for eventual privatisation, among others.
In relation to listed equities, the government is preparing to sell down
a 5% equity stake in JSC Kvarts (TSE: KVTS), the largest glass manufacturer in Uzbekistan and also the first company to IPO on the Tashkent Stock Exchange. The sell-down of this 5% tranche is part of a medium-term plan to sell up to
20% of the company through the stock exchange, thereby increasing the free float of the company.
The Uzbek Commodities Exchange (TSE: URTS) has also announced that the government will be selling down
its stake in their company. URTS is
the largest commodities exchange in Uzbekistan with annual turnover of $13.8mn. Two state-owned companies, O'zbekiston metallurgiya kombinati (TSE: UZMK) and Olmaliq kon- metallurgiya kombinati (TSE: AGMK) each own 6% of URTS and will be selling their shares total of 12% through a secondary public offering (SPO). Following this SPO the government will be left with 26% of the company.
(Disclaimer: As of 4th November 2019, the AFC Uzbekistan Fund held positions in KVTS, URTS and UZMK.)
Scott Osheroff is the CIO of the Asia Frontier Capital (AFC) Uzbekistan Fund, which was launched on March 29, 2019 and aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation for investors by capturing the value and growth potential in the recently liberalized economy of Uzbekistan.
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