Page 8 - bne IntelliNews 26th May

The Regions This Week
May 26, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
A $250mn bond investment made by Kazakh- stan’s state-run single pension fund became trapped in the debt restructuring announced by Azerbaijan’s largest bank, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), which has defaulted on its for- eign debt. The Kazakh central bank has launched a probe into the investment.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani swept to vic- tory over hardline opponent Ebrahim Raisi in the presidential election and declared that Irani- ans had chosen “the path of interaction with the world, away from violence and extremism”. On a turnout of 73%, Rouhani won a second term with 57.13% of the vote. Raisi took 38.30%. When first elected in 2013, Rouhani won 50.71% of the vote.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel, in which he blasted Iran
for continued support of terrorist and militant groups and missile development, a US senate committee cleared bipartisan legislation au- thorising the White House to subject Iran to new sanctions. The full senate will now consider the bill. US treasury chief Steven Mnuchin said he was looking for ways to increase sanctions against Iran. He said he might review licences granted to Boeing and Airbus to sell aircraft to the Iranians.
UK trade envoy to Iran Norman Lamont criti- cised Donald Trump’s “unremitting hostility” towards Iran. He said it was sad Trump has not even acknowledged Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s declaration that he is seeking better relations with the outside world and pointed out that most terrorism the West faces stems from the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia, not from Iran’s Shi’ism.
Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company Socar received approval to explore for oil and gas in Iran. It is faced with an oil production slump at home. Azerbaijani oil output contracted by 9.5% y/y to 12.6mn tonnes in January-April.
Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat Iran are to restart operations in Omani capital Muscat. Muscat is seen by Iranian firms as an offshore financial facility where Omani subsidiaries can conduct trade with foreign companies banned from dealing with purely Iranian entities.
The Kazakh parliament gave initial approval to a bill allowing Kazakh “terrorists” to be stripped of citizenship. Critics say the bill uses vague definitions such as “threats to vitally important interests”, which could open the door to misuse of the law. The country is consider- ing banning the Salafi branch of Islam.
Kazakhstan’s central bank suspended the li- cence of the 14th largest Kazakh lender Delta Bank, barring it from opening new deposits and customer accounts until June 15. The bank has apparently repeatedly failed to make timely pay- ments and was in breach of regulatory ratios.
The largest Georgian lender TBC Bank posted loan book growth of 27.1% y/y in the first quar- ter, deposits growth of 37.1% y/y and a 24.2% rise in its annualised return on average eq-
uity. Net profit rose 64.5% y/y and 9.7% q/q to GEL96.6mn (€34.5mn).
Russia and Abkhazia agreed to establish a joint intelligence centre to fight organised crime. Like South Ossetia, Abkhazia is a breakaway re- gion internationally recognised as part of Geor- gia. Georgia’s foreign ministry condemned the cooperation as representing “clear proof of the factual annexation process”.
The popularity of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is waning among Central Asian member state populations, a Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) poll found. Kazakh support fell to 74% in 2016 from 80% in 2015 and Kyrgyz support was down from 86% to 81%.