Kaspi Pay, a 100% subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s Kaspi.kz JSC, has signed a sale and purchase agreement for 100% of Portmone Group, an independent provider of payment and money transfer services in Ukraine, which is majority owned by Europe Virgin Fund (EVF).
“The acquisition of Portmone puts our Payments Platform in a strong position to end into Ukraine,” according to Kaspi’s semi-annual report on the London Stock Exchange.
According to the report, subject to anti-monopoly approval in Ukraine and Kazakhstan and approval by the National Bank of Ukraine, this transaction is expected to complete in the final quarter of 2021. The report said that upon successful closing the acquisition of Portmone also gives Kaspi.kz a payments license and Visa and Mastercard accreditation in Ukraine. In the medium-term, Ukraine can also become an important source of IT talent and a development hub for Kaspi.kz.
It is noted that Ukraine is characterized by high cash penetration (44% cash withdrawals), low e-commerce penetration at 8% of retail, low unsecured consumer lending at less than 4.5% of GDP and over 70% smartphone penetration.
Oleh Gorokhovskyi, the co-founder of virtual monobank serving over 3 million clients, predicted on Facebook that the new owner of Portmone would increase competition in the market.
“Kaspi is a global fintech star. The company’s valuation has doubled since the recent IPO and is already $13 billion. I love strong competitors. They are very motivating and mobilize the team,” Gorokhovskyi said.
At the same time, he doubted Kaspi’s ability to gain leadership in the Ukrainian market.
“In payments, they will have to compete with completely free payments from mono. In acquiring, in which they are strong in Kazakhstan, they will have to learn all the charms of government interference with the regulation of this market and compete not only with us and Privat, but also with Apple and Google Pay. Even in Kazakhstan, they got a marketplace – in Ukraine, this will also be difficult,” the co-founder of monobank said.
EVF, a regional private equity fund organized by Dragon Capital in 2010, acquired a majority stake in Portmone. The fund’s participants were Dragon Capital, EBRD, the Swiss sovereign wealth fund Obviam, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank and other investors.
Kaspi.kz operates on three platforms – marketplace, fintech platform and payment system. The company’s shareholders are Baring Vostok funds – 28.82%, Vyacheslav Kim – 23.25%, and Mikhail Lomtadze – 22.44%.
Ukraine is interested in deepening trade with Kazakhstan in the industrial and food sectors, First Deputy Prime Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko said, following the results of the 14th meeting of the Joint Ukrainian-Kazakhstani Interstate Commission on Economic Cooperation.
“In our opinion, the indicators of mutual trade do not correspond to our capabilities. We, as a reliable trading partner and top exporter of agricultural products, are interested in increasing the volume of trade in agricultural and food products,” the Economy Ministry press service said, citing First Deputy Prime Minister.
“At the same time, we are focused on deepening bilateral cooperation in the industrial sector, in particular, in industrial cooperation in agricultural machinery, automotive technology, aircraft construction and light industry,” Liubchenko said.
The meeting of the commission from Kazakhstan was attended by Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhita Sultanova, as well as Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Ukraine Darkhan Kaletaev and government representatives.
The sides discussed a number of issues on the development of bilateral cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure, energy, science and technology, investment, industry, space, healthcare, transport and transit. They also touched upon tourism, IT, cooperation in public procurement under the WTO agreement, the ministry said.
In addition, the Ukrainian side proposed to the Kazakh side to consider the possibility of investing in Ukrainian industrial parks. In addition, Kazakhstani companies were offered to take part in the concession in Ukraine, the Economy Ministry said.
As a result of the meeting, a relevant protocol on economic cooperation, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Economy Ministry of Ukraine and the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan on cooperation in bilateral trade and a Memorandum of Cooperation in the public-private partnership (PPP) between the PPP Agency were signed and JSC Kazakhstan Public-Private Partnership Center, according to the statement.
Kazakhstan is increasing the number of regular flights with Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and the Maldives.
The relevant decision was made by the interdepartmental commission to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the civil aviation committee of the Kazakh Industry and Infrastructure Development Ministry said on Wednesday.
Thus, in accordance with the interdepartmental commission’s decision, the number of flights to Russia will increase by seven in general, from three to 10 flights per week on each side. This includes the number of Nur-Sultan-Moscow flights increasing from two to four per week on each side and Almaty-Moscow flights increasing from one to four per week on each side. Shymkent-Moscow flights, one per week on each side, and Aktau-Moscow, one per week on each side, are resumed.
The number of flights to the Maldives is up from four to seven per week for Kazakh companies on the Almaty-Male route.
The number of Almaty-Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) flights is increasing from two to three per week.
Along with this, the number of flights to Uzbekistan is increasing from three to four (on each side) due to one more Nur-Sultan-Tashkent flight per week. Since September 11, one flight has been performed on the Nur-Sultan-Tashkent route and two on the Almaty-Tashkent route.
The number of flights to Ukraine is increasing to two, due to the resumption of one flight per week on the Nur-Sultan-Kyiv route. In August 2020, flights on the Almaty-Kyiv route were resumed.
The first container train on the China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-Ukraine new route, which delivered 41 containers with refrigeration equipment, has arrived in Ukraine.
The press service of Ukrzaliznytsia said on Thursday morning that the train had been on the way for 19 days.
Work is underway on the frequency of the train running once a week. “If there is sufficient cargo, the frequency of running will be increased and the train will run according to a clear schedule,” the press service said.
Work on the route’s capacity filling continues, “especially in the direction of receiving subsidies from China for cargo, so that the conditions of cargo transportation are economically attractive for carriers.”
In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia is developing an online service to enable customers to order a container seat on a train and pay for the service online, similar to purchasing tickets for passenger trains.
Ukrzaliznytsia recalled that direct container trains from China to Ukraine began to run on the territory of four countries from June 8, 2020. During this time, 13 trains have already arrived.
Container traffic accounts for 2.3% of the total volume of cargo transportation by rail in Ukraine. Currently, 36 container trains organized by Ukrzaliznytsia run on a regular basis across Ukraine.
Kazakhstan will start resuming passenger flights to and from a number of countries on August 17, the Kazakh Industry and Infrastructural Development Ministry said on Wednesday. “Starting on August 17, 2020, there will be phased resumption of international flights to the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Belarus, Germany, the Netherlands, Egypt, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation,” the ministry said.
The decision was made on August 11 by the interagency commission for coronavirus response with due account of the epidemiological situation reflected by the World Health Organization (WHO)’s chart.
The ministry noted that Kazakhstan’s agreement with the aviation authorities of the aforesaid countries was “preliminary.”
“The aforesaid countries support the resumption of flights to and from Kazakhstan in compliance with sanitary and epidemiological requirements (thermometry, social distancing, masks, and PCR testing),” the ministry said.
‘Please note that flights to Russia will require permission from the Russian side,” it said.
The number of flights will be established on the basis of current intergovernmental agreements on air travel depending on the commercial load of aircraft on each of the routes.
Novokramatorsky Machine Building Plant (Kramatorsk, Donetsk region), one of the leading enterprises of heavy engineering in Ukraine, has shipped equipment for the second stage of reconstruction of the drives of the rough mill of hot rolling at ArcelorMittal Temirtau (Kazakhstan).
“The production of complicated equipment was the result of winning a tender with the participation of Danieli and SMS, offering innovative design solutions and providing a guarantee of four years,” the company said in a press release.
The purpose of reconstruction is to replace the exhausted equipment and increase its crimping capacity in connection with the rise in thickness of the rolled slabs.
In autumn the plant specialists together with metallurgists from Temirtau will start installing the equipment, the total weight of which is 650 tonnes.
Novokramatorsky Machine Building Plant specializes in production of rolling, metallurgical, forging and pressing, hydraulic engineering, mining, lifting and transportation, specialized equipment, forgings, and castings.
