Alliance Bank (Kazakhstan) finishes restructuring debt

/KASE, March 30, 10/ - Alliance Bank (Almaty), bonds of which are listing on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), provided KASE with a press release dated March 30, 2010: Quotation begins Alliance Bank is pleased to announce the bank completed restructuring of its debt. National welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna increased the bank capital by KZT129 bn through acquisition of newly issued common shares KZT24 bn worth and conversion of right of claim on bonds of the bank into preferred shares for a total of KZT105 bn. According to the restructuring plan all financial obligations were restructured and annulled in exchange for money, new bonds and shares. After completion of the restructuring and additional capitalization the bank was additionally capitalized by KZT547.9 bn, and its regulation own capital will reach around KZT50 bn, which is in accordance with prudential norms. The debt reduced from USD4.5 bn (including accrued interest) to USD1.80 bn, including: USD850 m - senior debt on Euro bonds, USD85 m - trade financing, USD145 m - subordinated 20-year bonds. After the restructuring the shares of the bank are owned as follows: - Common shares: 67% - National welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna, 33% - creditors - Preferred: 67% - National welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna, 33% - creditors. 33% shares are owned by over 2,000 minority shareholders with non of them having over 3%. Loan terms were extended to 7-20 years, at that the first principal will only be serviced in 4 years. Bank Chairman Maksat Kabashev commented: "We can say the bank completed its recovery. Now, we have to regain our standings, lost in the crisis. On the whole, taking into consideration the market specifics, we are planning to develop as a universal bank with a segment of programs to work with little and middle size businesses. According to the new strategy we are planning a significant increase of service market share: on individual deposits up to 9.3%; on loan individual portfolio up to 11.3%; on company deposit portfolio up to 4.0%; on crediting of small and middle businesses up to 11.1%. The crisis brought a lesson that we learnt which will help to avoid mistakes in the future. We will pay much attention to build a modern risk-management system. As well the bank will specifically increase its transparency: the transparency is guaranteed by a unique shareholder structure and international standard compliant corporate government structure. Contact: Press Service of Alliance Bank Tel. +7 (727) 258 40 40 E-mail: pr@alb.kz Website: www.alb.kz Ends [2010-03-30]