KAZKOMMERTSBANK OJSC (Kazakhstan) repays euronotes of subsidiary Kazkommerts International B.V. (Netherlands), issued under the bank's guarantee

/IRBIS, May 8, 01/ - Today KAZKOMMERTSBANK OJSC (Almaty) distributed a press release, where it says that it has successfully repaid the first issue euronotes (XS0081674359, $100 mln, May 8.98 - May 8.01, semiannual coupon at 11.25% APR) of its subsidiary Kazkommerts International B.V. (Rotterdam), which were issued under the bank's guarantee. On May 4 the bank paid principal and interest on USD26,445,000 of the notes. The part of the debt at USD73,555,000 was repurchased earlier by the Bank on the open market in April 2001. The euronotes became the first corporate eurobond issued by an institution in Central Asia. The lead manager of the issue was ING Barings, to whom the Bank would like to express sincere gratitude for bringing the issue to the market. It is also said that the Bank is proud that, despite unfavorable market conditions in 1998-1999, it honored its obligations in due time and was able to support a secondary market for the Notes through open market transactions. Also, it is said that in 2000, KAZKOMMERTSBANK OJSC mandated ABN Amro Bank and Merill Lynch to act as co-lead managers for a new USD100 million eurobond issue. However, high costs resulting from prevailing market conditions led the Bank to postpone the issue. KAZKOMMERTSBANK OJSC intends to launch the new issue as soon as market conditions and pricing are more favorable. Euronotes of Kazkommerts International B.V. were actively traded on domestic stock market of Kazakhstan. On February 1, 1999 these securities were entered into official list of the KASE securities under category "A" and by the results of the year 1999 they were the most traded securities at the Exchange thanks to high returns and "net" denomination in U.S. dollars. On September 1, 1999 Kazkommerts International B.V. applied to the KASE with the request to remove the eurobonds from the trade lists of the Exchange. The decision on the delisting of the securities upon the issuer's initiative was made by the Exchange council on September 28 1999. "Decision on the delisting of the eurobonds at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange was due to regulation problems of the securities purchasing order and taxation for the residents of Kazakhstan. These problems impede the development of eurobonds market for the non-resident companies in Kazakhstan", is said in the message of KAZKOMMERTSBANK OJSC, which was devoted to the delisting initiatives. However, euronotes were in great demand on domestic market and up until the maturity they were in portfolios of private pension funds of the country.