Kazakhstan’s oil pipeline monopoly KazTransOil plans to raise 30 billion tenge ($199 million) via an initial public offer (IPO) as part of the Central Asian nation’s “People’s IPO” programme, a senior sovereign wealth fund official said on Friday.
The oil-rich country’s government plans to invigorate the small local stock market and raise around $500 million from a first round of IPOs, which will see company stakes of 5-15 percent sold to retail investors and local pension funds.
KazTransOil’s IPO is set to be held by the end of this year, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, deputy head of the sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, told Reuters.
“The issue volume will be 30 billion tenge,” Bishimbayev said. “Order books on the offering will be open in November,” he added. “We will give people an extra month to make sure that everyone who wishes to take part can subscribe.”
He said the planned volume of the IPO represented a 10 percent stake in KazTransOil.
The state, represented by Samruk-Kazyna, owns 100 percent of KazTransOil through its parent company, national oil and gas firm KazMunaiGas.
“We have conducted preparatory work among the population … and some 500,000 citizens have firmly expressed their intention to take part and support the ‘People’s IPO’ programme,” Bishimbayev told reporters earlier on Friday.
“It is still unclear, however, whether all of them will take part in KazTransOil’s IPO, or will distribute their cash and interest otherwise, taking into account that this programme will be implemented during five years.”
Bishimbayev said that KazTransOil’s IPO had been postponed from October due to last month’s government reshuffle.
Kazakhstan, No. 2 oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia, is also the world’s largest uranium producer and a major exporter of grain and industrial metals.
The government aims to give ordinary Kazakhs the chance to own shares in the country’s major companies.
During later stages of the five-year “People’s IPO” programme, the government plans to float stakes in national grid company KEGOC, flag carrier Air Astana, gas pipeline company KazTransGas, state railway monopoly Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, national uranium company Kazatomprom and others. (Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyhov; Editing by Eric Meijer and Hans-Juergen Peters).
Source – Reuters.
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