OREANDA-NEWS. January 19, 2009. The Kazakhstan’s Government has decided to place deposits of USD 300 million and USD 500 million with Kazkommertsbank and Halyk Bank respectively as early as next week. The money will further be converted into tier 1 capital, reported the Official website http://en.government.kz.

This was announced today by Mr. Kairat Kelimbetov, head of the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund, at the ceremony of signing of respective agreements between the Fund, the mentioned above banks and their major shareholders.

Under the anti-crisis program, the Government had proposed shareholders of four major banks of Kazakhstan (Alliance Bank, BTA, Halyk and Kazkommertsbank) to boost their capital through injections out of the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund, with the injections totaling up to USD 5 billion.

Currently the parties involved are talking of USD 1 billion to be channeled through acquisition of up to 25% of shares in each of the four banks. Late October, respective MoUs were signed among the Government, the National Bank, Agency for Financial Supervision, the banks and their shareholders. Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund has been designated as the program operator on behalf of the Government.

At the moment, the banks being public companies listed on the LSE, have to clear some time-consuming procedures. The deal will be finalized after the annual audit is over and the general meeting is held.

However, “these measures are a part of the Government’s anti-crisis program, we need to inject additional funds into the banks as soon as possible and start financing the national economy, that’s why the Government has decided to place short-term deposits of USD 300 million and USD 500 million with Kazkommertsbank and Halyk Bank respectively; these funds will be further converted into tier 1 capital”, Mr. Kairat Kelimbetov told a briefing.

According to the Fund’s press service, the works to draft and sign all the required documents with the other banks (Alliance and BTA) will be finalized by mid February.