Kazakhstan's Samruk-Kazyna and British Da Vinci Capital to create a $100 million joint private equity fund

AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan's investment opportunities and the further development of Kazakh-British business relations were the key topics discussed during the visit of the Kazakh delegation led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko, the MFA reports.
The 3rd meeting of the Kazakh-British Business Council and the Kazakhstan Global Investment Forum 2019 were held in London as part of the visit.
The forum was organized by Financial Times, an influential international newspaper, the fDi Magazine, Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund, Kazakh Invest National Company, and the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the UK.
Over 200 business executives from the manufacturing, agricultural, chemical, mining and financial sectors, as well as metallurgy, alternative energy, logistics and digital technologies spheres attended the forum.
"Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia, accounting for more than half of the region's GDP. We are also widely considered to have the best investment climate in the region, having attracted over $300 billion in foreign direct investment since independence," Vassilenko stated in his opening address.
He stressed that besides the business climate, foreign investors have been attracted by Kazakhstan's political stability demonstrated, among other developments, by the smooth transition of power and the election of the new President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, earlier this year; well-educated workforce; and the access the country provides to a fast-growing regional market of 500 million consumers.
Kazakhstan's participation in the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative gained particular attention. The forum discussed the prospects of developing a tripartite partnership between the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and China based on the principles of maximising efficiency through the use of the British project management system, Kazakhstan's resources and Chinese investments.
The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom Erlan Idrissov and the British Ambassador to Kazakhstan Michael Gifford stressed in their closing addresses that such major economy-focused events indicate the firm intention of the two states to deepen and expand investment and economic cooperation.
On the sidelines of the forum, Vassilenko met with top British business executives and the leadership of international organisations, including the EBRD, GlaxoSmithKline, Gap Insaat, Investcorp, Independent Power Corporation, United Green, Worley Parsons, and International Development Ireland Ltd.
Following the Kazakh-British Business Council meeting, Samruk-Kazyna signed an agreement with Da Vinci Capital investment company on the creation of a $100 million joint private equity fund. Under the agreement, the fund is to invest at least $40 million in Kazakh enterprises in the IT and digitisation sectors to facilitate their development and subsequent IPO.
Samruk-Kazyna also signed a co-investment agreement with EDP Renovaveis, the world's fourth largest solar and wind power company. The document regulates the principles of the joint implementation of renewable energy projects in Kazakhstan. EDP Renovaveis plans to implement a project to build a 250 MWatt solar power plant in Kazakhstan.
The event also saw the signing of two memoranda of cooperation:
- between the QazIndustry Kazakhstan Industry and Export Centre and the International Development Ireland Ltd on the assistance in attracting Irish investment projects worth at least 50 billion tenge to the territory of Kazakhstan's special economic and industrial zones, and
- between the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan and the Gap Insaat company on the construction of a 350-bed hospital in Aktau using the financing provided by UK Export Finance.