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The Reuters (USA), February 2, 2009, FACTBOX-KEY CHANGES IN KAZAKHSTAN'S BANKING SYSTEMKazakhstan on Monday effectively nationalised its top bank BTA BTAS.KZ and said it was looking to rescue through takeover another troubled bank, Alliance (ссылка скрыта). The announcement is part of state efforts to bail out the ailing banking system, hit hard by the global financial crisis. Below are key details of the two deals announced on Monday. BTA * Kazakhstan's state banking regulator ordered BTA on Jan. 29 to boost its loan loss provisions by 400 billion tenge ($3.3 billion), citing increased risks for its Russian loan portfolio heavily focused on construction. * After creating the provisions, BTA found itself breaching regulatory requirements on liquidity and capital adequacy. The government then invoked a law introduced late last year which allowed it to force the bank to issue new shares and sell them to the state for just over $2 billion. * The government on Monday sacked BTA Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has in turn called the nationalisation illegal. It has also named former central bank chairman Anvar Saidenov an advisor to BTA Chief Executive Roman Solodchenko. * The government also said on Monday it was in talks with Russia's Sberbank which could buy half of its stake in BTA. A source close to the talks told Reuters a senior Sberbank management team had flown to Kazakhstan on a potential takeover. * BTA, Kazakhstan's largest bank with assets of $30.6 billion and foreign debt of $12 billion, said the takeover was ikely to trigger covenants on most of its foreign loans. * BTA shares are traded on the Kazakh Stock Exchange. ALLIANCE * Alliance, Kazakhstan's No.4 bank, said on Monday its key shareholder had offered the government to buy a 76 percent stake in the bank for a "symbolic" payment of less than a dollar. * The shareholder, SAFC, which retains an interest of about 8 percent, said it had given up the stake as it would be unable to maintain the bank's capitalisation and "financial stability" in the long run. * London-listed Alliance said the government had deposited $200 million in its accounts to help maintain the bank's liquidity. Alliance's total foreign debt is $3.9 billion. The Reuters (USA), February 2, 2009, by Dmitry SERGEYEV; Melissa AKIN, RPT-SBERBANK TEAM IN KAZAKHSTAN FOR BTA TALKS-SOURCEA senior management team from Russia's top bank, state owned Sberbank (ссылка скрыта), has flown to Kazakhstan for talks on a potential takeover of Kazakhstan's BTA BTAS.KZ, a source close to the talks said on Monday. The source said Sberbank would want Kazakhstan's entire stake in BTA, the top Kazakh bank, once a state takeover of the bank is completed. "(Sberbank) would want it all if (Sberbank) decides to go for it," the source said. "It is to early to talk about the structure of a deal." The GeorgianDaily (USA), February 2, 2009, Nargis KASSENOVA, KAZAKHSTAN AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS CORRIDOR IN THE WAKE OF THE GEORGIA-RUSSIA WARThe Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline links Azerbaijan and Georgia to European energy markets but has also opened up a transit corridor for resource-rich Central Asian states. Kazakhstan has increasingly used this westbound route for its oil exports but was startled during the August conflict between Russia and Georgia. This EUCAM Policy Brief assesses the impact of the war on kazakhstan’s plans of ’going west’. Although the impact of the war has been severe Astana does not seem inclined to give up the South Caucasus route, which is highly important for commercial and geopolitical reasons. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL DIGITAL NETWORK. FEB. 4, 2009, By Polya LESOVA, MARKET WATCH: KAZAKHSTAN DEVALUES CURRENCY AMID BANKING CRISISNEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Kazakhstan devalued its currency by about 18% Wednesday, as the mineral-rich, central Asian country struggles to contain a banking crisis and deal with the impact of tumbling oil prices. The National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to allow the country's currency, the tenge, to fall by around 18%. The central bank set a new target rate for the tenge at 150 versus the U.S. dollar, allowing the currency to fluctuate within 3%, up or down, from that level. The devaluation comes only days after the Kazakh government vastly expanded its role in the financial sector by nationalizing two of the four largest banks and taking 25% stakes in two other lenders. The move also follows currency devaluations in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Read more. News of the devaluation drove Kazakhstan's five-year CDS [credit default swap] spreads higher by a further 65 basis points to 1,083 basis points, according to RBC Capital Markets. The country's CDS spreads have been climbing steadily in recent weeks, signaling that investors see a greater risk of sovereign debt default. In London Wednesday, the shares of Kazakh mining firms rallied following the devaluation of the tenge and after Eurasian Natural Resources (UK:ENRC: news , chart , profile ) said it doesn't have a need to cut production further. The Kazakh miners have costs in tenge -- notably labor -- but sell the metals they extract in dollars. See London Markets. A page from Russia's playbook? The plunge in oil prices -- which are down 54% over the last 12 months -- has put pressure on Kazakhstan's economy as well as that of neighboring Russia, which has allowed the ruble to fall sharply in recent months. Both Russia and Kazakhstan have a vast wealth of natural resources, including petroleum and natural gas. "In taking a page right out of the Russian playbook, Kazakh policy-makers are trying to peg the tenge again after the failed attempt to defend it after oil prices plunged," said Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. "As such, we look for continued pressure on the currency," Thin said, adding that the market is betting that the new peg will be broken. Twelve-month forward contracts -- which allow investors to bet on or hedge against the future fluctuations of a currency -- show the tenge at 186.315, or another 20% from current levels. In January, Russia ended its policy of managed mini-devaluations of the ruble and allowed one-off 10% devaluation, but also set a new trading limit for the currency. Subsequently, the ruble has continued to come under pressure, raising speculation about whether the Russian central bank will continue to aggressively defend the exchange rate by spending its international reserves. Like other emerging markets, Kazakhstan may be forced to approach the International Monetary Fund for help in the coming weeks, Thin said. Banking crisis "The latest devaluation will pressure Kazakh banks and companies, which have severe currency mismatches," Thin said. "Kazakhstan is struggling with a banking crisis along the lines of Iceland." Iceland, a North Atlantic island nation, was plunged into crisis last October as its once-vibrant banking sector collapsed, sending its currency and stock market into a nosedive. "All in all, Kazakhstan is being viewed as a smaller version of Russia: heavy state involvement in the economy, high dependence on oil exports, and falling foreign reserves." — Win Thin, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Responding to its own banking crisis, Kazakhstan's government has bailed out all four of its biggest banks. On Monday, it effectively nationalized BTA Bank and Alliance Bank (UK:ALLB: news , chart , profile ) , while it took 25% stakes in Kazkommertsbank (UK:KKB: news , chart , profile ) and Halyk Savings Bank (UK:HSBK: news , chart , profile ) . The devaluation of the tenge, which is aimed at preserving reserve levels, carries "certain risks for the sovereign," said Standard & Poor's in a statement Wednesday. A weaker currency is a positive for those export-oriented companies whose operating costs are denominated in tenge, the ratings agency said. However, "the impact on the banking sector, which is highly leveraged externally, is negative, suggesting a further rise in contingent liabilities to the sovereign," S&P said. The impact for the sovereign "so far seems containable," as Kazakhstan's fiscal and monetary reserves, at 42% of gross domestic product, remain substantial relative to nearly all peers, the agency said. "The second chief risk is that confidence in monetary stability and, by association, the banking system could weaken further, triggering more downward pressure on the exchange rate," S&P said. Thin of Brown Brothers Harriman said: "All in all, Kazakhstan is being viewed as a smaller version of Russia: heavy state involvement in the economy, high dependence on oil exports, and falling foreign reserves." And sentiment toward Russia and all of Emerging Europe remains very bearish. Fitch Ratings cut Russia's sovereign credit ratings to only two notches above non-investment or "junk" status Wednesday, saying the sharp decline in commodity prices, capital flight and the rapid depletion of its foreign exchange reserves have weakened the country's balance sheet. |