KEGOC, Samruk-Energo, Kazpost to launch"People’s IPO” - Nazarbayev

    President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed his government to prepare state-owned Samruk-Energo, Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC), and Kazpost for domestic initial public offerings by the end of the year as part of the so-called “Peoples’ IPO.”
    Other state-owned companies including oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, uranium miner Kazatomprom, and rail monopoly Kazakhstan Temir Zholy should follow up with initial public offerings of their own in 2012 or 2013, according to Nazarbayev.
    “The people’s IPOs will give hundreds of thousands of ordinary Kazakhs the chance to own shares of the largest companies and will serve as an instrument for investment and savings,” Nazarbayev told a congress of his ruling Nur Otan political party.
    The offerings should benefit ordinary Kazakh citizens and not just the rich, Nazarbayev said. In addition, they should help develop the domestic stock market, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).
    Samruk-Kazyna, the state-owned investment and holding company, which manages the state assets, aims to prepare and present a plan to conduct the “people’s IPO” during the first quarter of this year. It has not yet publicly revealed the size of the stakes to be sold, or the mechanism for disposal.
    Nazarbayev said foreign companies operating in Kazakhstan should also participate in the IPO process, although he did not say how this might be achieved, SRI said.