Government to sell its stakes in Kazakh banks

The Government is expected to sell its stakes in in BTA, Temir Bank and Alliance Bank before 2014, KazTAG reports. This was announced by Kairat Kelimbetov, the Fund’s Chairman. He made this announcement at the Minex Central Asia – 2011 mining forum in Astana. “We have prepared respective proposals. The plan is to exit the banks’ ownership structure within reasonably shortest time. To be realistic, selling of the government’s stakes could take 2-3 years”, he said. According to him, the banks’ value is set to grow. In January 2011, Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Karim Massimov instructed Fund’s Chairman Kairat Kelimbetov to come up with suggestions on selling the government’s stakes in the banks. In 2009, as part of the government’s anti-crisis package, Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund bought common stock in the mentioned above banks.