Akhmetzhan Yessimov, an influential member of the facility elite in Kazakhstan, left his submit as chairman of Samruk-Kazyna, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, in what may mark a watershed second for each the fund and a number of other of its affiliate firms.
A scanned copy of the draft decree that sanctioned the change on the high of Samruk-Kazyna was leaked to social media on March 21, simply because the Nowruz vacation season kicked off. Unconfirmed for every week, the information tickled the curiosity of many observers.
Lastly, on March 29, the doubts had been dismissed as Askar Mamin, the nation’s prime minister, held a closed convention name introducing Almasadam Satkaliyev, previously managing director at Samruk-Kazyna’s Asset Administration Division, as Yessimov’s alternative.
As famous within the press launch, Mamin acknowledged Yessimov’s function within the modernization of the fund.
Each former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his successor Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, had been quoted as saying that they want “Samruk-Kazyna Basis to create favorable circumstances for additional sustainable improvement of the nationwide financial system via the event of the gasoline and power sector, infrastructure, transport and logistics and industrial potential of the nation, attraction of investments, and assist of home producers.”
At 70, Yessimov may need been previous his time to satisfy the duty at hand. Whereas his sacking was cordial, reasonably than hostile, it’s not but clear what he’ll do subsequent. Within the conventional formulation of Kazakhstan’s authorities reshuffling, the decrees typically point out that the outgoing bureaucrat can be “reassigned to a different place.” This was not the case this time.
“I go away this submit with the sensation of getting completed my objectives,” Yessimov stated upon his resignation.
Throughout Yessimov’s tenure, Samruk-Kazyna embarked in what analysts referred to as a “reverse privatization” with the buyback of upstream oil producer KMG EP’s shares from the London Inventory Change and the efficient nationalization of telecom firms Kcell and Tele2. The timid sale of Kazatomprom shares within the newly minted Astana Worldwide Monetary Middle within the capital metropolis of Nur-Sultan was not sufficient to persuade observers of a real push for privatization.
On the finish of 2020, a parliamentary report lamented that Samruk-Kazyna’s efficiency had worsened in 2018, regardless of rising oil costs. One monetary analyst who printed an in depth report on one of many holding’s affiliated firms, was taken to court docket for libel.
The $63 billion fund was additionally below risk by a sequence of lawsuits regarding each the federal government of Kazakhstan and Samruk-Kazyna’s affiliated firms. The delay in paying an arbitral award to a bunch headed by a Moldovan businessman led to the freezing of billions of {dollars} throughout a number of jurisdictions.
Criticisms on the administration of Samruk-Kazyna additionally reached Yessimov’s household connections. Samruk-Kazyna held round $350 million in deposit accounts at ATF Financial institution, which was owned by Yessimov’s former son-in-law Galymzhan Yessenov. The choice to carry money at ATF contradicted the coverage of the fund, which solely permits collaborations with A-rated banks, whereas ATF was rated B- on the time. Yessenov offered ATF Financial institution in November 2020 to a different financial institution, linked to Nazarbayev.
Twice minister of agriculture, ex-mayor of Almaty, and briefly head of the presidential administration, Yessimov had a stellar profession in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. He additionally served as ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg in 1998-2001 and was referred to as to “clear up the home” on the Astana EXPO committee, after corruption scandals marred its fame.
Yessimov has now been changed by Satkaliyev, who rose to prominence within the mid-Nineties as a part of the ravenous elite that took over the administration of the nation’s oil and gasoline state firms. For the reason that mid-2000s, Satkaliyev served as a high supervisor at Samruk-Kazyna, which was created by the merger of a state asset supervisor and the sovereign wealth fund in 2008.
Satkaliyev’s period may coincide with long-awaited adjustments within the administration of state property.
At Samruk-Kazyna’s power subsidiary Kazmunaigas, vital adjustments involving the construction of the corporate may have contributed to the choice to swap the pinnacle of the holding. KazTransGas, the nation’s gasoline infrastructure monopolist and as soon as a subsidiary of Kazmunaigas, was spun off right into a separate entity – nonetheless below the Samruk-Kazyna umbrella – earlier in March.
Probably unrelated to the political dynamics that affected Samruk-Kazyna, one other stunning resignation rocked one of many holding’s most important firms. Sauat Mynbayev is stated to have left the highest job at Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the nation’s railway firm and largest employer, for well being causes within the night of March 29, after solely two-and-a-half years on the helm.
Whereas a renewal within the nation’s elite is undoubtedly happening, the general public settlement between the ex-president and his successor in assigning new appointees highlights that the “Nazarbayev Period” carries on.