Samruk-Kazyna swaps Kazakhtelecom director as four telecom boards change

Samruk-Kazyna replaced its representative on the board of Kazakhtelecom on 7 October, the last of four board reshuffles at Kazakhstan's exchange-listed telecom companies in less than three weeks, filings with the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) show.

Read together with the companies' shareholder disclosures, the filings show how concentrated ownership of the country's listed telecom sector is.

At an extraordinary meeting on 7 October, Kazakhtelecom shareholders removed Yelzhas Otynshiyev and elected Darkhan Abdimoldayev, each listed as a representative of the interests of Samruk-Kazyna, the company's filing says. The board has seven members, a KASE notice says. The meeting was convened at the initiative of a major shareholder, with board composition as its only item, the notice of meeting shows. The list of shareholders entitled to vote was drawn up as of 31 August, and the meeting would have moved to 14 October had it lacked a quorum.

Samruk-Kazyna, the national welfare fund, held 9,771,920 Kazakhtelecom common shares as of 1 July, equal to 91.27 per cent of outstanding common shares and 80.52 per cent of all outstanding shares, a shareholder disclosure shows. The company had bought back 216,852 common and 914,868 preferred shares. Kazakhtelecom in turn held 102,000,000 Kcell shares, or 51.00 per cent, and KC Holding Ltd held 29,745,215, or 14.87 per cent, Kcell's disclosure for the same date shows. No other Kcell holder had 10 per cent or more.

Transtelecom's shareholders removed T. Iskakov from its board on 5 October and elected B. Mukazhanov, while re-electing S. Abdildin and N. Aryngaziyev, leaving seven directors, a KASE notice says. The company's two shareholders are Unit Telecom LLP, with 4,228,572 common shares, and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, with 1,409,525, the dividend decision in its annual meeting results shows. That is roughly 75 and 25 per cent.

Alma Telecommunications Kazakhstan, listed under the ticker ALTV, replaced most of its board on 30 September. Yerzhan Aldar and T. Kosacheva left, and E. Gumarov, A. Mukasheva, G. Mazhitova, D. Tungushbayev and I. Ishmukhamedov were elected, leaving a board of five, a KASE notice says. The notice does not identify the shareholder behind the change.

QMobile, formerly Jusan Mobile, changed its board by a decision of its sole shareholder on 25 September, leaving four members, a KASE notice says. As of 1 July, Assets Logistics and Property Group LLP held all of its outstanding common shares, the company's disclosure shows.

In each of the five companies, a single shareholder or a state body holds a controlling stake, the filings cited above show. On the July figures, holders other than Kazakhtelecom and KC Holding owned 34.13 per cent of Kcell, and holders other than Samruk-Kazyna owned 8.73 per cent of Kazakhtelecom's outstanding common shares. Those residual stakes are the most that could be in free float; the disclosures do not say how much of them trades. Board decisions at three of the companies were taken by general meetings in which one shareholder controls the vote, and at QMobile by the sole shareholder directly.

The filings do not give reasons for any of the changes. They also do not say whether the new Kazakhtelecom director will sit on the board of Kcell, where Kazakhtelecom's 51 per cent stake gives it control. Kcell's own extraordinary meeting is scheduled for 17 November, a KASE notice says, and the shareholder registers as of 1 October, due on the exchange in the coming weeks, will be the next point at which any change in these holdings would show.