Interfax
October 31

The International Issues Syndicate, Uzbekistan's corporate bond organizer, has approved an issue of 2 billion som or $2.4 million in local-currency bonds by the Almalyk Mining and Metals Combine, one of Central Asia's biggest nonferrous metals producers.

The details of the issue have not yet been finalized, however it is expected that the bonds will be one-year papers at 29% annually.

Uzprivatbank, Uzbekistan's international bank for privatization and investments, will be the issue underwriter. The primary placement is expected at the end of October or early November, once the Center for the Coordination and Control of the Securities Market has registered the issue.

This will be Uzbekistan's biggest corporate bond issue to date. Since December 2001, the Issues Syndicate has organized bonds worth a total of 4.87 billion som by seven issuers.

The syndicate, set up in September last year, has 14 members, among them Carthill Assets Management Company, IT solutions provider A&TM, and 12 commercial bank-underwriters.

Almalyk is Uzbekistan's only copper producer. It also produces 90% of the country's silver and 20% of its gold. The combine mines and processes about 25 million tonnes of ore per year and its annual output is estimated at more than $220 million. In 2001, the combine had earnings of $175.2 million, compared with $194.6 million in 2000. Profits from core activity were $38.1 million, compared with $59.9 million.

Almalyk has embarked on a series of upgrades that will cost $347.5 million between 2002 and 2010. By the end of this year, the program will have absorbed $35 million, mainly on equipment and dump trucks that the combine will buy itself.

---