Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund, has set up a USD 1.5 billion Medium Term Note Program. The base offering memorandum is dated September 30; it was published on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 2 and on the Astana International Exchange (AIX) on October 14. This is a borrowing framework, not a single USD 1.5 billion deal. The size, currency and coupon of each issue will be set in its own pricing supplement, and the fund can raise the program limit.
Three details stand out for Chinese investors and companies: Guotai Junan Securities (Hong Kong) is one of the three arrangers; the terms set a separate minimum denomination for renminbi notes; and the rule that part of every issue must be sold in Kazakhstan stays, but gains exceptions from October 21.
Who sells the notes, and where they list
The arrangers and dealers are Citigroup Global Markets, Guotai Junan Securities (Hong Kong) and Standard Chartered Bank, and the fund may appoint others for a single issue or on an ongoing basis. Notes can be admitted to the London Stock Exchange's International Securities Market, and the program itself is listed in Hong Kong for professional investors only. The fund will also use reasonable endeavors to have each issue admitted to the bonds category of KASE's main platform and/or the AIX official list. The notes are governed by English law.
There is no currency restriction. Minimum denominations are CNY 1 million for renminbi notes and EUR 100,000 or its equivalent for other currencies, and the memorandum provides for notes cleared through the CMU, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's debt settlement system. A full section is devoted to the risks of renminbi notes: limited convertibility, scarce offshore supply and currency swings. Coupons can be fixed, floating or zero, and there is no single maximum maturity.
30% at home, with a way out from October 21
Whenever a series is sold abroad, at least 30% must be offered through KASE and/or AIX on the same terms, and at least 20% of the principal must actually be placed there. A licensed Kazakh broker-dealer runs that local tranche; the international dealers stay out of it.
To illustrate with hypothetical numbers: on a USD 500 million issue, at least USD 150 million would have to be offered on KASE or AIX at the same price, and at least USD 100 million placed there.
From October 21, 2026, the memorandum says, the requirement does not apply if the fund can borrow abroad on more favorable terms, or if there is no demand on KASE and AIX. The criteria for both are to be set by a regulatory act of the authorized body and are not spelled out in the document. In practice, the local quota shifts from a hard rule to a default that can be waived.
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The AIX listing also matters for tax. Under the Constitutional Law on the Astana International Financial Centre of December 7, 2015, interest and capital gains on securities on the AIX official list are exempt from Kazakh tax until January 1, 2066. Notes listed only on KASE, or delisted from AIX, fall back under the general Tax Code.
Where the money goes, and the fund's numbers
Proceeds are for general corporate purposes, including lending to subsidiaries for investment and export development, trade finance and refinancing. The fund's portfolio includes KazMunayGas, Kazatomprom, national railway KTZ, grid operator KEGOC and Kazakhtelecom, spanning oil and gas, transport, energy, mining and telecoms.
According to the memorandum, group revenue for the first half of 2026 was KZT 10.25 trillion, up 20.9% year on year, and net profit was KZT 1.74 trillion. At June 30, total assets stood at KZT 46.67 trillion and total liabilities at KZT 18.86 trillion, about 10.5% higher than at the end of 2025. The fund's long-term foreign-currency debt is rated BBB by Fitch and Baa1 by Moody's, both with stable outlooks. Trend reported that Fitch assigned the program itself a BBB rating in mid-October, in line with the fund's issuer rating.
Not the same as the dim sum bond
On October 16 Samruk-Kazyna priced its debut CNH 3 billion offshore renminbi bond, a completed deal. The USD 1.5 billion program is a standing limit the fund can draw on repeatedly. Neither the memorandum nor the fund has said what the first series under the program will be or when it will come.
What Chinese companies in Kazakhstan and investors in China may want to watch: whether renminbi shows up in the first pricing supplement; which authority will grant waivers from the local quota after October 21, and on what criteria; and which subsidiaries and projects the money reaches, including any built with Chinese contractors.
(The cover image is an AI-generated illustration and does not depict the events described.)
Sources:
HKEXnews, Samruk-Kazyna USD 1.5bn MTN Program base offering memorandum (October 2, 2026), https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2026/1002/2026100200853.pdf
London Stock Exchange RNS (via Investegate), https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/sovereign-wealth-fund-samruk-kazyna-jsc--84zp/publication-of-a-prospectus/9799485
Kursiv, https://kz.kursiv.media/2026-10-15/svan-samruk-kazyna-mozhet-zanyat-do-15-mlrd-v-londone-gonkonge-i-kazahstane/
National Business, https://nationalbusiness.kz/news/samruk-kazina-gotovit-razmeshenie-obligatsiy-na-15-mlrd-6e3343/
Trend, https://www.trend.az/casia/kazakhstan/4235661.html