News Roundup

News Roundup - November 16, 2007

By SRI ⋅ November 16, 2007 ⋅

Eurasia Daily Monitor: Kazakhstan adjusts its relations with Arab states

On November 5 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Damascus for a three-day visit. Both Nazarbayev and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, seemed satisfied with the talks, which covered investments, bilateral trade, and political ties…

Financial Times: Unicredit sees Asian growth after bank deal

Unicredit, the Italian bank, plans to use its acquisition of Kazakhstan’s ATF Bank as a springboard to expand further into central Asia. The $2.1bn deal was completed on Thursday…

Forbes: Chevron’s Kazakstan Tengiz oilfield jv fine reduced to 309 mln usd

Chevron’s Tengiz oilfield joint venture in Kazakhstan has had its fine for environmental violations at the oilfield reduced to 309 mln usd on appeal, roughly half of the initial fine of 609 mln usd…

Forbes: ATF Bank ratings raised to ‘BBB+’ - Fitch

Fitch Ratings said it upgraded ATF Bank’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to country ceiling ‘BBB+’ from ‘BB-’ after UniCredit SpA completed its acquisition of 95.6 pct stake in the Khazakh bank…

Forbes: KazakhGold says Gold Lion to place 6 to 8 mln GDRS in co at 26.5-27 usd each

KazakhGold Group Ltd said Gold Lion Holdings Ltd plans to offer about 6 to 8 mln existing shares in the company, in the form of an aggregate of 6 to 8 mln Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) at a price range of 26.50-27.00 usd per GDR…

PR Newswire: Kazakhstan responds to international financial instability

According to a statement, the Kazakh Government is confident that the ountry’s economy will continue to grow amid instability on global financial markets…

Canada East: European Minerals trims Q3 loss to US$1M; Kazakhstan gold production imminent

European Minerals Corp. with gold production about to start at its development in Kazakhstan, said Thursday it had a pre-tax loss of US$1 million in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of $2 million…

Gazeta.KZ: “Kazakhstan - EU” conference is scheduled to be held in Brussels by the end of November

“Kazakhstan - EU: results and horizons of cooperation” conference is scheduled to be held in Brussels by November 27, as reported by the agency with reference to the “Nur Otan” People’s Democratic Party press service…

Canada News Wire: Arawak announces Q3 2007 results and operations review

Arawak has enjoyed a successful third quarter, with significant exploration success complementing strong production growth, especially in Kazakhstan…

Asia Sentinel: Rebuilding the legendary Silk Road

Led by the Asian Development Bank, a flock of agencies and countries will pour as much as US$18.7 billion into the moldering infrastructure of the Stans — the landlocked countries of Central Asia that were formerly under the yoke of the Soviet Union — building a network of roads, airports, rail lines and seaports…

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: More leaked recordings target presidential party

New audio recordings have appeared on Kazakh opposition websites that purport to shed further light on top-level corruption…