Government reviews implementation of Comprehensive Privatization Plan: 465 objects worth 296 billion tenge sold.

At the Government meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Finance Alikhan Smailov and Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov reported on the course of privatization for 11 months of 2018.

The Minister of Finance Alikhan Smailov reported on the current results of the implementation of the Comprehensive Privatization Plan for 2016-2020 and the measures taken to complete it. Thus, at present, the total number of objects of the Comprehensive Privatization Plan is 922, of which 48 were additionally included Nov. 9, 2018.

“From 2016 to date, 532 objects have been put up for sale, of which 465 objects have been sold for 296 billion tenge. Ninety-six properties are in pre-sales. Total of 287 objects were sent for reorganization and liquidation, 160 of them have already been reorganized and liquidated,” Smailov said.

The State Commission for Modernization of the Economy decided to exclude sevenobjects from the privatization list. The execution of the Comprehensive Privatization Plan, taking into account the objects being reorganized, liquidated and subject to exclusion, is 88% at the current date.

“In 2018, 243 objects were to be sold. Currently, 155 objects were actually put out, of which 88 were sold for 117 billion tenge and 67 are in the auction. Another eight objects will be put up for sale before the year end,” the minister reported.

In addition, decisions were made: on reorganization and liquidation — on 56 objects; on exclusion from the list of privatization objects — on 7 objects. According to the Ministry of Finance, the implementation period of 17 objects must be transferred to 2019. Relevant materials will be submitted to the next meeting of the State Commission.

Along with this, out of 58 top facilities of the Comprehensive Plan, 34 were put up for sale, including 18 sold for a total of 136 billion tenge.

“One object will be put up by Dec. 28, 2018 (Kazakhavtodor LLP). Three top objects are subject to exclusion on the basis of decisions by the State Commission, one object is to be liquidated. The deadline for the implementation of ten top-level objects is set for 2019-2020 by the decision of the State Commission. For another 9 objects, the implementation is to be transferred to 2019-2020,” Smailov said.

In addition, according to the Minister of Finance, in 2019, 23 objects scheduled for 2019-2020 are to be put up for sale. Of these, seven of the largest companies of the Samruk-Kazyna Fund - by phased IPOs. At the same time, Nov. 14, 15% out of 25% of Kazatomprom shares on the AIFC and the London Stock Exchange were traded, the amount of transactions amounted to $451 million. The sale of the rest of the shares will continue in 2019, 17 objects transferred from 2018 due to objective circumstances and 48 objects additionally included in the Comprehensive Privatization Plan.

In turn, the Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov reported that in order to increase the efficiency of the activities of state bodies, the ministry in 2019 will complete a functional analysis of subordinate organizations of state bodies to identify redundant and duplicate functions. Following the results of this work, the Ministry will prepare proposals for the further optimization of subordinate organizations.

In addition, Suleimenov noted that until 2020 it is planned to introduce a moratorium on the creation of subordinate enterprises (with the exception of the social sphere). The government will be encouraged to use the potential of existing subordinate organizations. Currently, a corresponding draft resolution has been developed, which is undergoing approval procedures.

The Minister of National Economy also reported on the transfer of the Fund’s assets to an IPO.

“Nov. 14, 2018, with the participation of the Head of State, the opening of the first trading session on the Kazatomprom deal on the AIFC Exchange took place, which became a landmark event for the development of the capital market in the country. A total of 15% of Kazatomprom shares were withdrawn, which is 168 billion tenge. Shares were acquired by 49 foreign and 17 domestic legal entities, as well as 2,700 citizens of Kazakhstan. The conclusion of the remaining companies of the Fund's group to IPO is scheduled for 2019-2020. In particular, it is planned to sell shares of Kazakhtelecom and Air Astana in 2019,” said Suleimenov.

Managing Director - Head of the Secretariat of the Samruk-Kazyna Fund Alisher Pirmetov, Chairman of Baiterek NMH JSC Aidar Arifkhanov, Chairman of the Board of JSC KazAgro Holding Rustem Kurmanov reported on the ongoing work on the preparation of objects for sell.

Following the consideration of the issue, Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev noted that, in general, the sale of objects is on schedule.

At the same time, given that 8 objects are not put up for bidding and 67 are being put up for auction, Sagintayev instructed the ministries, local executive bodies and holdings to complete the presentation and sale of objects subject to privatization this year. For the new 48 objects included in the List, it is necessary to accelerate the activities for their presale preparation.

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