News Roundup - March 13, 2008

Financial Times: ENRC and Kazakhmys explore tie-up

Kazakh mining groups Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation and Kazakhmys have held informal discussions about combining to form a company worth roughly £20bn ($40m), with leading positions in copper, iron ore, ferrochrome and aluminium…

Reuters: ENRC considers buying Kazakhmys, shares jump

Kazakh mining group Eurasian Natural Resources said it is considering buying rival Kazakhmys, sending Kazakhmys shares surging and boosting the firm’s market value to a peak of $17.3 billion…

The Independent: Rival miners in talks to create Kazakhstan ‘national champion’

ENRC, the miner that will enter the FTSE 100 this month, is in talks to buy its domestic rival Kazakhmys in a deal that would bring together Kazakhstan’s two largest companies and create a central Asia mining giant…

Times Online: Kazakhmys to deny takeover talks with Eurasian Natural Resources

Kazakhmys, the FTSE-listed copper miner, is expected to make a statement to the London Stock Exchange today denying claims that it has held informal takeover talks with another Kazakh mining giant over a proposed £18 billion deal…

Ferghana.ru: No more cheap Central Asian gas for Gazprom

Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan will start selling gas to Gazprom at European tariffs as of 2009 in accordance with the decision made at the meeting of senior executives of Gazprom, Kazmunaigaz, Uzbekneftegaz, and Turkmengaz yesterday…

Hemscott: JSC Halyk says agrees investment banking deal with Daewoo Securities

JSC Halyk Savings Bank Kazakhstan said its unit JSC Halyk Finance has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Daewoo Securities to co-operate on investment banking activities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia…

UN News Centre: UN aids flood victims in Kazakhstan as heavy snows melt

United Nations units are coming to aid of flood victims in southern Kazakhstan, where heavy rains and rapidly melting snow have displaced more than 13,000 people following Central Asia’s harshest winter in decades…

Neweurasia.net: Some facts about our health

The forecast of general mortality in Kazakhstan until 2010 presumes increase of this index. The most part of deaths (86%) and illness burden (77%) is detemined by the so-called “social diseases” — cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, malignant neoplasms (cancer) and insular diabetes…

Rigzone: RBG awarded major contract by BP Caspian

RBG Limited, the integrated oil, gas and petrochemicals services contractor, has been awarded a four-year contract by BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd to provide operations and maintenance support services on offshore and onshore assets…

Interfax: 50% stake in Khabar Agency put up for tender – KASE

Ordinary shares of Khabar Agency JSC will be put up for tender on March 14 at the special trading (STF) of the Regional Financial Center in Almaty (RFCA) hosts a special trading, said Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE)…

Interfax: Public discontent with government and local authorities is growing, ASPS poll

Kazakhstan’s society is nurturing feelings of growing dissatisfaction with the government and local executive authorities on the background of soaring consumer prices, according to the head of Republic’s Association of Social and Political Scientists (ASPS)…