Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna expects its subsidiaries to borrow 800 billion tenge ($4.3 billion) this year, around half of it on external markets, Nurlan Rakhmetov, the fund’s managing director, said on Wednesday.
Samruk-Kazyna manages state-run stakes worth a total of around $100 billion, or roughly half of Kazakhstan’s gross domestic product. The oil-rich nation of 17 million is central Asia’s largest economy.
The fund’s subsidiaries include national oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, Development Bank of Kazakhstan, fixed-line monopoly Kazakhtelecom, national shipping company Kazmortransflot, state uranium company Kazatomprom and national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.
Speaking at a news conference after the fund’s annual meeting, Rakhmetov gave no details of planned borrowings.
“This is in principle an affordable level of borrowing,” he said. “As we put it today, (the fund’s) financial solidity coefficient … is within a rather safe range.”
