KASE suspends Transtelecom's TCOMb1 bonds after a coupon meeting

The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange will suspend trading in Transtelecom's TCOMb1 bonds from 2 November, after holders met on 30 October to consider amending the issue prospectus, the exchange said in a notice on Friday. The suspension follows a letter from Transtelecom asking for it.

In the letter, dated 30 October and signed by T. Iskakov, deputy chairman of the management board and chief financial officer, the company says the general meeting of holders of bonds KZ2C00006344 was called on the question of changing the coupon rate, with voting due to close at 18:00. It cites paragraph 6 of article 18-2 of Kazakhstan's securities market law.

The company asked the exchange to halt placement and trading from 30 October until the day after the meeting's decision is published on the website of the financial reporting depository. If holders approve a new rate, the halt runs until the day after the changes to the prospectus are registered with the state. The exchange gives subparagraph 1 of paragraph 77 of its trading rules as the basis and sets the start of the suspension at 2 November.

Neither document gives the proposed rate or the result of the vote. The exchange's page for the bond lists its last coupon rate as 11.5 per cent a year and a circulation period from 10 January 2020 to 10 January 2032, which leaves a little over five years to maturity.

The exchange first announced the meeting in a notice of 15 October, with an agenda covering the coupon rate and the matching changes to the prospectus. Corridor Signal covered that notice in its piece of 20 October and listed the meeting in The Week Ahead for 26 October.

The length of the halt now depends on the outcome. A rejection would end it the day after the decision is published; an approved change would keep the bonds out of trading until the state registers the amended prospectus, a date neither notice estimates.