Samruk Kazyna to Raise $300 Million in Air Astana IPO
During the New Time program on the Jibek Joly TV channel on Jan. 30, Nurlan Zhakupov, Chairman of Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund, announced that the fund aims to raise $300 million through the initial public offering (IPO) of Air Astana. He also revealed that the indicative price range for the IPO of securities has been set between $8.5 and $11 for global depositary receipts.
“Yesterday [Jan.29], we announced the roadshow and the book-building process. This involves management meetings with institutional investors and discussions about the business. Institutional and retail investors submit their applications for how many shares they want to purchase. Last Friday, the board of directors at Air Astana approved the price range for the shares being offered. We are offering global depositary receipts. There are four shares in one global depositary receipt,” said Zhakupov.
Zhakupov highlighted the company’s financial achievements: “During its existence, Air Astana has paid dividends to us [Samruk Kazyna] of over $80 million and paid taxes of over $711 million. Today, if we compare the amount we invested in 2002 in creating Air Astana with the price range we now offer potential investors, the company’s value has increased 77 times.”
In August of the previous year, Samruk-Kazyna attempted to sell Qazaq Air through a two-stage auction, but the process was unsuccessful due to a lack of bids. Following that, another competition for the sale of Qazaq Air shares was announced on Jan. 9 of the current year, but it faced the same fate of being unsuccessful due to the absence of competitive bids meeting the specified conditions.
Zhakupov expressed optimism about the increased transparency and improved corporate governance resulting from the entry of Samruk-Kazyna subsidiaries into the market.
“We already have public companies, like Kazatomprom, with a 25% stake, which are listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the AIFC Exchange (AIX), and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). KazMunayGas and KEGOC are also part of our portfolio,” he said.
