Kazakhstan’s leading retail lender, Halyk Bank, has completed a landmark share buyback that signals that at least one of the country’s banks is well on the way to recovering from the global credit crunch.
In mid-March Halyk announced that it was buying back a near 20% stake in the bank that the authorities in Kazakhstan purchased in March 2009 as part of a bank stabilization programme coordinated by sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.
Of the roughly 260 million shares held by Samruk-Kazyna, 213 million have been bought by Halyk Bank itself, with the balance bought by the bank’s majority shareholder, Almex group.
As a result of the transaction, Almex’s shareholding has been boosted to roughly 69% from 54%, while the overall free float of the bank, which is listed in London as well as Almaty, has increased from 21% to about 25%.
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