People’s IPO calls for legislation amendments

People’s IPO in Kazakhstan calls for amendments into a number of national laws, Economy Minister Kairat Kelimbetov stated at a government sitting August 23, Tengrinews.kz reports. “An important aspect is to overcome legal hurdles to the planned IPOs. To this end, some laws should be amended, notably on subsurface use, railways transport, on power industry, on state-run property, on Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund and some others (…)” Besides, a number of suggestions have been put forward on amending legal framework and rules of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange”. “These amendments among other things will set liabilities for insider trading; contribute to information disclosure and transparency; set requirements to advertisement of the planned IPOs (…)”, the Minister said. The Economy Ministry in partnership with Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund have launched a working group to develop suggestions on how to amend the current legislation before September 23. Speaking at the Nur Otan party congress on February 11 President Nazarbayev instructed the Government to launch Initial Public Offerings (IPO) for common people before the end of 2011. The program is known as People’s IPO. According to President Nazarbayev, the IPO for the general public will enable citizens to purchase shares of the largest Kazakh companies, giving them a new tool for investments and savings. August 4 Tengrinews.kz quoted Minister Kairat Kelimbetov as saying that the major slogan of the Kazakhstan’s economy policy for the nearest 5 years is large-scaled privatization . “(…) Privatization will be run in two stages”, according to Mr. Kelimbetov. At the first stage, that is in 2012-2015, Kazakhstan will launch the so-called People’s IPOs of national companies. Afterwards, some national holdings will be floated to attract strategic global investors".