OREANDA-NEWS. On April 16, 2008 Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan JSC (Almaty), securities of which are traded in the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) category "A" official list, provided to KASE the press-release with the following content, reported the press-centre of KASE:

On 9 April, 2008, Joint Stock Company 'Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan' (Halyk Bank) (LSE: HSBK) placed a USD 500 million benchmark bond offering (Offering).

The Offering which was available to institutional investors both inside the United States (in accordance with Rule 144A) and internationally , has a bullet maturity on 16 October, 2013 and bears a coupon of 9,25% pa. The Offering was priced at 98,948% to yield 9,5% pa and was in line with initial price guidance. The issuer under the Offering is HSBK (Europe) B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halyk Bank, with Halyk Bank acting as a guarantor.

The deal was well received in the market  and was sold mostly to investors in the US (65%), the UK (24%), Europe (8%), Asia (2%), and Switzerland (1%), with the largest portion being taken by asset managers (84%).

We were very pleased that these investors came into this deal - their loyalty is even more appreciated at times when the general market environment is challenging,' said Grigoriy Marchenko, CEO of Halyk Bank.

The Offering is the first public Eurobond from a bank in Kazakhstan and it the first public transaction for a private sector CIS bank since July, 2007.
 
JPMorgan and UBS acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners for the transaction.

Halyk Bank is the only privately-owned bank in Kazakhstan with an investment grade rating (i.e. Moody's Baa3). As at 31 December, 2007, total consolidated assets of Halyk Bank were KZT 1,595 billion and total shareholders' equity was KZT 161 billion. Net income for the year ended 31 December, 2007, was KZT 40.5 billion, the return on equity was 31%, and the return on asset was 3,4%.