Page 11 - BNE_magazine_07_2020

bne July 2020 Companies & Markets I 11
Kazatomprom made a profit of Kazakhstani tenge (KZT) 213.7bn (€477.2) in 2019, down by 50% y/y. The firm’s 2018 earnings were boosted by one-offs.
The company has cut its 2020 output guidance due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but said a weaker tenge would boost its revenue in local currency terms.
Last September, Samruk-Kazyna sold 9.86mn global depositary receipts (GDRs) representing interests in ordinary shares in Kazatomprom at a sales price of $13 with gross proceeds of $128.2mn. Of the aggregate amount of GDRs sold in the placing, 6.5mn were purchased by international investors while 3.4mn were purchased by domestic investors. The securities were offered via an accelerated bookbuild on London Stock Exchange facilities and Astana International Exchange (AIX) facilities.
KazPV units
In May 2019, Kazatomprom announced that it had agreed to sell to a consortium of investors 75% of the charter capital of a consolidated package of units under the KazPV project, which includes Astana Solar, Kazakhstan Solar Silicon and KazSilicon. The consortium is made up of Yadran Solar company (Russia), ECM Greentech (France)
Emerging markets enjoying their strongest crisis bounceback ever
Ben Aris in Berlin
Emerging markets (EM) stock markets are enjoying their strongest crisis bounceback ever, as coronavirus (COVID-19) infections stabilise and governments remove two-month-long lockdowns.
Economies around the world have been hit by the shock of the pandemic and many have also suffered from a concurrent oil price shock sparked when Russia walked out of the OPEC+ production cut deal on March 6.
However, as economies open up again and oil prices have broken above $40 after almost halving in price in the last two months, investors have turned “risk on” again and are snapping up cheap shares ahead of their inevitable rebound.
and Kasen/Canadian Solar (PRC). It is also set to purchase the remaining 25% ownership interest in the KazPV project within three years.
The sale of Kazatomprom's non-core subsidiaries and affiliates is part of a 2016-2020 privatisation plan. The planned sale of non-core assets, such as the KazPV project, was disclosed in the company's IPO prospectus.
The company floated 15% of its shares on international markets in 2018.
Kazatomprom accounted for approximately 24% of global primary uranium production as of 2019. The group sells uranium and uranium products under long-term contracts and short-term contracts, as well as on the spot market, directly from its headquarters in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan and
via its Switzerland-based trading subsidiary, Trade House KazakAtom AG (THK). The company operates at 24 deposits grouped into 13 mining assets.
In March 2020, Kazatomprom completed the sale of its 50% interest in the Uranium Enrichment Centre (UEC) to its partner in the joint venture, Russia’s TVEL Fuel Company, for $100mn.
EM stock markets around the world have recovered faster than in any of the last big five crashes.
“At this point in the rebound, this EM rally is now the strongest of any of the big-5 EM sell-off rebounds (1998, 2001, 2008, 2016, 2020) and with US, DM and safer (particularly Asian) EM equity markets having less than 10% to go before reaching pre-coronavirus (Jan-Feb) 2020 peaks, investors are being forced up the risk curve in search of potential returns,”
Daniel Salter, head of equity strategy at Renaissance Capital (Rencap), said in a note on June 10.
Russia is in the vanguard as one of the “safe haven” markets thanks to its low debt and large reserves, and the economy is already showing signs of a rebound. Rencap saw it coming and marked the whole Russian market up to Buy in the first week of May, in what is now starting to look like a classic call, as bne IntelliNews reported at the time.
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