BTA is our bank and we will support it: Shukeyev

Chairman of Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund Umirzak Shukeyev commented the statements of bankers about the future of BTA Bank, Tengrinews.kz reports. "I think that there is some escalation of emotions here. Maybe they see this bank as a competitor or it give little hope. This is our bank and we will support it," Shukeyev said. "There are no problems right now, all payments are made with no delays, the deposits base is stable. There are no excessive outflows," chairman of Samruk-Kazyna said. As for the bank's prospects, Shukeyev said that the bank was negotiating with the creditors on the second stage of restructuring of its debts. "This is a common practice. We see that the debt load that has been significantly decreased during the first restructuring is still excessive. We are currently negotiating with the creditors on additional measures to ensure stable perspectives for the bank," Shukeyev said. Chairman of Samruk-Kazyna said that there had been uncertainty at the initial stage of negotiations, but everything got stabilized and the creditor's commission was being formed. The general meeting of shareholders was scheduled for April 11 to appoint the bank's board members and a new chairman. "I am quite optimistic about the medium-term perspectives of the bank," he added. On April 3 chairwoman of Halyk Bank Umyt Shayakhmetova expressed doubts of practicability of the second restructuring of BTA Bank. "I think we need to understand the cost of restructuring and what is required to keep this bank on the float. Over $7 billion have already been invested in this bank and we understand that these are apparently non-recoverable state funds. Right now we are talking about additional $5 billion and more," she said. Chairman of BTA Bank Anvar Saidenov, in his turn, tagged Shayakhmetova's statement a violation of corporate and professional ethics. By Maksim Popov