Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna completes sale of controlling stake in Temirbank and minor stake in Alliance Bank to B. Utemuratov

/KASE, May 15, 14/ – Sovereign Wealth Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" (Astana), whose bonds are officially listed on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), today provided KASE with the following information statement: quote "Samruk- Kazyna" JSC and Bulat Utemuratov have completed the transaction on the sale and purchase of 79.88% of the ordinary shares in "Temirbank" JSC for KZT 35.5 bn and 16.00% of the common and preferred shares in "Alliance Bank" JSC for KZT 1.5 bn. Additionally, "Temirbank" JSC paid to "Samruk-Kazyna" dividends of KZT 9.1 bn from retained earnings of 2010-2012. As a result of this transaction, Samruk-Kazyna remains the controlling shareholder of "Alliance Bank" JSC with 51 % of the common and preferred shares and Bulat Utemuratov becomes the controlling shareholder of "Temirbank" JSC. Both transactions were approved by the regulatory authorities on March 20, 2014. "The sale of the shares of these banks, carried out in accordance with the instructions of the President, is a further step of the anti-crisis program of the stabilization of the financial sector, which will release "Samruk-Kazyna" from its non-core functions of managing the banks. In general, the sale of these financial institutions should have a positive impact on the financial market, with the new owners having full independence in managing the banks and actively participate in the development of the Kazakh banking sector", - said Elena Bakhmutova, deputy chairperson of Samruk-Kazyna. Bulat Utemuratov noted: "The completion of the acquisition of the controlling stake in TemirBank and a minority stake in Alliance Bank are key steps towards the recovery of these two banks. The management of Temirbank already has clear objectives to improve the quality of services offered to its clients and to rapidly start delivering on its business strategy. I expect that in the nearest future customers of the bank will feel a significant improvement in the quality of their relationships with this bank. In respect of Alliance Bank, in conjunction with the Fund "Samruk-Kazyna", the management is in the process of conducting extensive negotiations with the representatives of the bank's creditors to restructure its external debt in order to restore its capital base. For my part, I am willing to participate in the capital restoration and recovery of Alliance Bank by contributing the capital of Temirbank and merging the two entities. For its part, the Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" intends to support the combined bank by maintaining long-term funding at the bank in significant volumes. Now the capital restoration exercise of Alliance Bank depends largely on the willingness of the creditors to participate in the ongoing process. We will make every effort to work with them and dedicate as much time as required to secure a successful outcome to these negotiations. Sufficient participation by the creditors to the capital restoration exercise is the key condition for merging Temirbank with Alliance Bank. We have invested significant amount of money and effort already at Temirbank, therefore a combination should only be done if its fully sustainable in the long term. I expect that after the completion of the restructuring of Alliance Bank and the integration with Temirbank, the combined bank will become one of the leaders of the Kazakh banking system by capital adequacy and liquidity." "Samruk-Kazyna" JSC, hereby notifies all stakeholders, including shareholders and creditors of "Temirbank" JSC, that on the day of transaction completion, all obligations and undertakings of "Samruk- Kazyna" JSC taken under the restructuring of "Temirbank" JSC are terminated Public Relations Team "Sovereign Wealth Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" JSC: +7 (7172) 55-41-14 unquote [2014-05-15]