EBRD takes 15 pct in Kazakh Kazkommertsbank

The deal, worth $30.6 million and signed by EBRD President Jean Lemierre with Kazkommertsbank chairman Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, is the EBRD's first direct investment into Kazakhstan's banking sector. Kazkommerts said in a statement it was the EBRD's first purchase of voting shares in any bank in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose collection of 12 ex-Soviet republics. Kazakhstan, a vast former Soviet Central Asian state five times the size of France but with a population of just 15 million, has the most successful economy in the region, and the most advanced banking sector. "This country has a very good banking sector," Lemierre said at the signing ceremony. "If we are now a shareholder in Kazkommertsbank it's because we trust with full confidence the management of the bank."