Page 66 - bnemagazine bne_December 2021_20211203.pdf

66 I Eurasia bne December 2021
to equity ratio remains an extremely modest 0.10, according to Bluestone.
“Despite Qizilqumsement's large-scale investment in a fourth production line, on May 22 the company announced it would allocate 75% of 2020 net profits to dividends at UZS989 per share. However, the company failed to pay the dividends within the 60 days stipulated by the regulations due to cash needs for construction,” Bluestone reports.
The management called an EGM at the end of August and voted to reduce the
dividend payments to UZS660 per share to free up more cash to pay for its capital investment, but it wasn't enough. In September the management announced that it was suspending the dividend payment altogether.
Despite these growing pains portfolio investors remain keen on the company. The Tashkent-based, but foreign managed, AFC Capital says that Qizilqumsement accounts for a third of its portfolio on its own and Bluestone also has a Buy recommendation on
the stock, estimating the shares still
have a 14% upside. When the fourth production line comes online the capex should drop to nothing and the revenues will increase; the company's financials could improve dramatically in the New Year.
“Our price target is a conservative forecast that could be revised significantly upwards if the fourth cement production line opens in December 2021, as the company indicated in 2020, and the company resolves its dividend and cash flow issues,” Bluestone said in a note.
Tokayev said. “But, as they say, the role of a leader is to make unpopular decisions."
In recent years, Kazakh officials have often worried aloud over how to prevent a growing energy shortfall, especially as Nur-Sultan has pledged to clean up its coal-dominated power sector.
Tokayev first publicly discussed the idea of building a nuclear power plant with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in April 2019. Putin offered to assist with Russian technology, including training Kazakh specialists to manage and maintain the plant.
The public reaction that followed pushed the idea onto the back burner. Critics pointed to the threats of a possible ecological disaster, the risks
of energy dependence on Russia, and the cost. Many cited the Chernobyl disaster in Soviet Ukraine in 1986 and the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011. The fears were heightened by the Chernobyl TV series that aired on HBO just as the controversial initiative was being discussed.
Tokayev – having assumed the presidency the month before – hastened
Coal cannot keep up with demand.
Kazakhstan looks to nuclear amid crypto-driven energy shortage
Almaz Kumenov for Eurasianet
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has declared that Kazakhstan’s decades-long handwringing over nuclear power has come to an end. Despite widespread fear of nuclear in
a country that was used as a testing ground for the Soviet atomic weapons programme, Kazakhstan no longer has a choice, Tokayev said.
Admitting that “we are already feeling the first signs of power shortages
in Kazakhstan” – in part due to the rapid increase in electricity-hungry digital-currency mining this year –
www.bne.eu
Tokayev told bankers in the business capital, Almaty, on November 19 that Kazakhstan must pursue nuclear energy at some point soon.
"Looking into the future, we will
have to make an unpopular decision about building a nuclear power plant,"
“Looking into the future, we will have to make an unpopular decision about building a nuclear power plant”