KEGOC may hold IPO in 2023 and offer 5% of its shares

ASTANA. June 7 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - KEGOC, Kazakhstan's operator of the national power grid, may offer 5% of its shares in a secondary public offering (SPO) this year, said Yernar Zhanadil, the managing director for development of National Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna.

"The president [of Kazakhstan] signed recently a law, which says that the share that must be owned by Samruk-Kazyna [in KEGOC] is set at 85%. Previously, it was 90% plus one share. Thus, we are talking about 5% that will be offered in [KEGOC's] SPO. We have hired investment banks and are considering all possible options," Zhanadil said on the sidelines of the Astana Finance Days conference on Wednesday.

The SPO may be held this year, he added.

"Provided that the market is ready to pay the price that will support further development of the company with its new tariffs, increasing power transportation and the commissioning of new power generation assets, I am confident that the SPO may be held this year," Zhanadil said.

Samruk-Kazyna is considering the both domestic stock exchanges - the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) and the Astana International Exchange (AIX) - for KEGOC's SPO, for Samruk-Kazyna is interested in increasing the liquidity and giving all investors from Kazakhstan an opportunity of participating in the SPO, according to Zhanadil.

KEGOC, part of National Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna, is the operator of the national power grid. KEGOC is owned by Samruk-Kazyna (90%) and the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF, 7.25%). In December 2014, as part of the People's IPO, as much as 10% of KEGOC's common shares were sold on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

KEGOC owns and operates about 27,000 km of 220-1150 kV overhead lines and 82 substations.