KazakhGold sets GDR offer price, to raise $176 mln

/REUTERS, Almaty, November 25, 05/ - KazakhGold set the offer price for its Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) at $15 on Friday, the upper end of a previously announced $12-15 range, and expects to raise $176 million from the issue in London. "Based on the offer price, the market capitalisation of KazakhGold will be $707 million," the company's public relations consultant Citigate Dewe Rogerson said in a statement sent by email. Conditional dealing would start on Friday. "It is expected that closing and settlement of the global offer will be on 30 November 2005, and unconditional dealings will commence on the London Stock Exchange on 1 December 2005," it said. KazakhGold, the parent company of Kazakh-based gold miner Kazakhaltyn, will be the second firm from the Central Asian state to have its primary listing on London's main exchange. Copper miner Kazakhmys floated in October, while state oil firm KazMunaiGas is expected to list its upstream unit abroad in 2006. KazakhGold, owned by the Assaubayev family, says it has mining rights to around 27 percent of all Kazakhstan's gold reserves. [2005-11-25]