An analysis of bond placements by quasi-state issuers on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) and the Astana International Exchange (AIX) has revealed some details of financing schemes. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Kursiv Research extracted data from the general placement database on two largest state holdings – Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna and National Management Holding Baiterek – and their portfolio companies. The focus was on issues of parent and subsidiary structures where parameters such as currency, placement date, maturity, and coupon rate directly coincide or are similar.
With a high degree of confidence, such mirror placements are part of a scheme where parent structures finance their subsidiaries. Since corporate reporting data confirms only part of the operations, the companies mentioned in the article will be referred to as probable holders or issuers of certain bond issues.
The key benchmark of the national investment holding Baiterek within the approved development plan until 2033 is "large-scale financing of the real sector," while beyond 2029 the holding plans to begin a phased replacement of budget financing.
For a large quasi-state structure with a credit rating at the sovereign level, this means more active borrowing on the stock market. Baiterek is already following this path: over the past five years (2020–2025), the volume of capital raised through the placement of debt securities recorded on the company's balance sheet tripled – from 2.5 trillion to 7.5 trillion tenge.
But these are consolidated values, including placements of subsidiaries such as the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK), Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (QIC), Agrarian Credit Corporation (ACC) and its subsidiary KazAgroFinance. The holding itself began to show high activity on the stock market in the last five years: of 63 bond issues on KASE conducted from 2014 to 2025, only 11 relate to the period before 2020.
According to Kursiv Research calculations, in the last three years (2024–2026), Baiterek standalone placed bonds on KASE and AIX worth 3.3 trillion tenge in tenge equivalent.
The holding attracts capital on exchanges, including for funding subsidiaries. Having studied the period 2020–2026 (in 2026 – data for incomplete eight months), we tracked a series of Baiterek placements that were mirrored by placements of its subsidiary and grandchild structures with similar currency and maturity, as well as a close interest rate value.
Most mirror placements are in tenge. The volume of issues in this "core" ranges from 50–100 billion tenge, rates – 11.50–18.30%. These placements are mainly mirrored by ACC, KazAgroFinance, and the DBK subsidiary Industrial Development Fund (IDF).
There are also foreign currency placements in this narrow list: two 7-year dollar issues – January 2025 and May 2026, both for $500 million. These issues were mirrored by QIC, with the only difference that Baiterek raised funds at 4.65% and 5.20%, while QIC – at 5.15% and 5.88%, respectively. In the first case, the spread was 0.50 percentage points, in the second – 0.68 percentage points, or 50 and 68 basis points.
The spread between the placement rates of the holding and its subsidiaries is what unites Baiterek's tenge issues and mirror placements of its subsidiaries: in most recorded cases of tenge issues, it is consistently 50 basis points. An exception is the placement of 15-year bonds for 190 billion tenge in January 2024 at 13.00%, which was mirrored by IDF at 13.15%.
Most of the mentioned placements fall in the last two years – 11 of the 15 mirror placements we identified (if counted by parent placements), two in 2021, and one each in 2020 and 2024.
In 2025–2026, Baiterek passed through such placements a total of 1.4 trillion tenge. "Internal" placements accounted for 32% of the total volume of placements on KASE and AIX in the specified period.
The Samruk-Kazyna holding, like Baiterek, has significantly increased the volume of placements through the stock market in recent years. Some of these placements also bear signs of financing subsidiaries and dependent companies. In the case of the Fund, the corporate center acts not only itself, but also through a special subsidiary – Bolashaq Investments LTD (controlled through Samruk-Kazyna Invest).
Kursiv Research recorded 10 placements of the parent structure that were mirrored by subsidiaries, and all of them fall in the period 2024–2026. The Fund attracts debt in tenge, dollars, and yuan with maturities from 3 to 15 years, and then, apparently, redistributes to subsidiaries – sometimes with a minimal margin, sometimes without any.
The latest case is the placement of 15-year tenge bonds at 1.00% for 60 billion tenge on 18.08.2026, which was mirrored the same day by the placement of bonds of Kokshetau CHPP LLP on AIX – the same maturity, the same volume, but at 0%.
The Baiterek "rule" of a 0.50% margin on tenge placements was likely followed by the Fund in the latest case of financing Ekibastuz GRES-2: in July 2026, Samruk-Kazyna placed 15-year bonds in exactly the same volumes and with the same maturity as its energy "granddaughter." The rates differed, and only by half a percentage point: if the corporate center got money at 1.00%, the power plant – at 1.50%.
However, the "0.50% rule" works with Samruk extremely limitedly. A year earlier, mirror bond loans cost EGRES-2 more: in two approaches, the Fund raised 105 billion tenge through the issue of 15-year bonds at 3.50%, while in the same period the station raised 180 billion on bonds of the same maturity, but at 14.50%, the spread was 11 percentage points.
As we see from Samruk's cases, not in all cases of mirror placements there is an exact match of amounts: on 10.07.2026, the Fund placed a 5-year issue for 3.0 billion yuan at 2.09%, simultaneously with the same maturity, Kcell and KT-Telecom (both companies are subsidiaries of Kazakhtelecom) placed yuan bonds, but at a different rate.