Kcell's two largest holders stay at 51 and 14.87 per cent before its vote

Kazakhtelecom still holds 51.00 per cent of Kcell and KC Holding 14.87 per cent, the register as of 1 October shows, as published by the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) on 29 October. Both stakes are unchanged from July.

Kazakhtelecom holds 102,000,000 of Kcell's 200,000,000 authorised common shares, all of which are outstanding. KC Holding Ltd holds 29,745,215. Together that is 131,745,215 shares, or 65.87 per cent, leaving 68,254,785 shares, or 34.13 per cent, with holders below the 10 per cent reporting line. KASE lists no other holder above it. The disclosure for 1 July, published on 20 July, gives the same two names and the same share counts.

The filing is the register that our 25 October piece named as the next point at which a change in these holdings would show. It shows none among the two largest holders. It does not show how the remaining 34.13 per cent divides, or how much of it trades, because it lists only holders of 10 per cent or more.

The date matters for the merger vote. Kcell's board called an extraordinary meeting for 17 November to vote on merging KazNet Media JSC into Kcell, and set the register at 00:00 Almaty time on 19 October as the record date for who may attend and vote. The 1 October snapshot is 18 days earlier, so it does not itself establish who holds the votes. A register as of 19 October is not part of what KASE has published so far.

A second notice from Kcell, also dated 16 October, adds a detail the first did not. It convenes a joint general meeting of Kcell and KazNet Media shareholders on 17 November at 11:30 Almaty time, half an hour after the Kcell meeting is due to start, with the same 18 November fallback. Its agenda has three items: approving the agenda, setting up a counting commission, and the merger itself. Like the first notice, it gives no terms, no exchange ratio and no voting threshold.

Telecompaper reported on 22 October that KazNet Media has been part of Kcell's corporate structure since 2016 and specialises in software code development and testing, in its report on the proposed merger. Kcell's notices do not describe the business.

Kazakhtelecom, the 51.00 per cent holder, is the controlling shareholder whose support Moody's cited in its Baa3 rating of Kcell, as the operator summarised it. Kcell's notices say agenda materials will be available for review at least ten days before the meeting, which for 17 November means by 7 November. Those papers are the next place where terms, and any related holdings, could appear.