Samruk-Kazyna rejecting BTA bankruptcy option
ASTANA. Dec 15 (Interfax) - Samruk-Kazyna has not mulled a bankruptcy scenario for BTA Bank, said Samruk-Kazyna managing director Peter House.
"We are not selling or announcing it a bankrupt. The bank certainly has problems. The situation is much worse than we expected. It is taking the three banks (BTA, Alliance Bank and Temirbank) too long to recover. But the management is very strong and it works hard to resolve the issues. We have invested a lot of money and effort in putting this bank back on track," he said.
Earlier Samruk-Kazyna Deputy CEO Aidan Karibzhanov said that the fund planned to suggest support measures for BTA Bank after reviewing the bank's new business plan.
"The decision on support measures has not been taken yet. It will depend on the bank's current business plan and on the proposals to be made by its management," Karibzhanov told journalists in Almaty on Wednesday.
"At present BTA Bank's management is working on a business plan and a restructuring scheme: to restore assets stolen by the former owner and to make the bank competitive," Karibzhanov said.
In September of 2010 BTA Bank completed debt restructuring, as a result of which the bank's debts reduced from $16.65 billion to $4.2 billion, while the repayment period was extended from 8 to 20 years.
After the restructuring National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna became the major shareholder of BTA Bank (81.48%). The other 18.5% is owned by the creditors that were not affected by the restructuring.
Currently, the bank is working with legal and financial advisors to restore its pledge base and get back as many illegally withdrawn assets as possible.
In 2010 BTA Bank was ranked 16th by asset size among the CIS banks and third among the 39 commercial banks of Kazakhstan by the Interfax-1000 CIS Banks Ranking prepared by the Interfax-Economic Analysis Center.