Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna has announced the placement of 31 of its own shares at 22.5 billion tenge each — a total of 697.7 billion tenge, equivalent to approximately $1.4 billion — in exchange for unspecified state property, sparking speculation that the transaction may involve the government’s 40% stake in Eurasian Resources Group currently held by the Ministry of Finance’s Committee on State Property and Privatisation.
The fund’s sole shareholder, the Kazakhstani government, holds the pre-emptive right to purchase the shares. The announcement did not identify the state property being transferred, but the scale of the transaction — $1.4 billion — prompted financial analyst Arman Bataev of the Finmentor Telegram channel to suggest the asset in question is the government’s ERG stake, given that it is the most significant state-held mining asset at a comparable valuation.
The timing adds to the intrigue. On 23 May, ERG announced a major ownership change: Nature Energy Solutions Ltd., owned by Kazakhstani businessman Shakhmurat Mutalip, acquired a combined 39.3% stake from Patokh Chodiev (18.6%) and the heirs of Alexander Machkevitch (20.7%). The Financial Times had previously reported that the transaction value was approximately $1.4 billion — precisely matching the sum now involved in the Samruk-Kazyna share placement.
If the analysis is correct, the current ERG ownership structure would be: the Ministry of Finance holding 40%, the Ibragimov family 20.7%, and Nature Energy Solutions — Mutalip’s vehicle — 39.3%. A transfer of the Ministry of Finance’s 40% stake to Samruk-Kazyna would consolidate state control of ERG within the sovereign fund structure rather than the government’s direct balance sheet.
ERG is one of Kazakhstan’s most strategically significant industrial conglomerates, producing ferroalloys, copper, cobalt, aluminium and gallium across operations in Kazakhstan, Africa and beyond.
