OREANDA-NEWS. September 21, 2009. SC Astana Finance (hereafter Astana Finance or the Company), on behalf of itself and Astana Finance B.V., is pleased to announce that, as of 24 August 2009, it has engaged Ernst & Young Advisory LLP (hereafter Ernst & Young) as its restructuring adviser to assist with the implementation of the Company's debt obligations restructuring process. Ernst & Young has replaced J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd.

The Company would also like to take this opportunity to announce the formal establishment of a Creditors' Committee, which is to be chaired by Nomura International Plc as Co-ordinator. Astana Finance is confident that the formation of the Creditors' Committee will be a positive step and is looking forward to working with the Committee.

As a result of the continued deterioration of the Company's liquidity position the Company today announces a moratorium on payments of interest on all of its domestic bonds and loans until the finalisation of the Company's restructuring proposal. The Company expects to be in a position to present its restructuring proposal within the next 6 weeks.

The Company has now substantially completed a review of its loan books and, as a result, expects provisions for the year against bad and doubtful debts to be in the region of KZT 85 billion1 to KZT 90 billion. FMSA2 has informed the Company that it has until 15 November 2009 to arrange a recapitalisation sufficient to restore capital adequacy. Please see below a link to a further presentation dated 16 September 2009 prepared by the senior management of the Company which contains selected unaudited financial information in support of these updated figures. presentation

In addition, KASE1 has announced that it is considering the delisting of the Company's securities due to violation of information disclosure requirements, and the Company is preparing the action plan required to ensure compliance with such requirements in the future. That action plan will be submitted to KASE for consideration as soon as possible.

If you would like further information you are invited to contact:

Ms. Aigerim Salykova, Director of Planning and Development , Astana-finance JSC, a_salykova@af.kz

Ms. Zhanara Iskhakova, Managing Partner, First Legal LLP, Afcreditors@kz.ey.com

zh_iskhakova@firstlegal.kz

Mr Keith McGregor, Partner, Ernst & Young, kmcgregor@uk.ey.com

Mr Timur Pulatov, Partner, Ernst & Young, timur.pulatov@kz.ey.com

1 The spot mid-rate between the Kazakhstan Tenge and the US dollar on 16 September 2009, as quoted by the National Bank of Kazakhstan, was KZT 150.95 to USD 1

2 he Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Regulation and Supervision of Financial Market and Financial Organisations

3 Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.