Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna readies Panda bond
Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna is preparing to debut in the Panda bond market in the coming weeks.
The three-year transaction will be benchmark size, or up to Rmb3bn (US$432m), and is likely to price after the Lunar New Year holiday, which takes place in mid-February. The issuer received board approval for the deal last August, has established a Rmb10bn programme and plans to be a repeat borrower in the Chinese market.
“We would like to establish our footprint in the onshore market,” said Nurlan Zhakupov, CEO of Samruk-Kazyna, explaining that a Dim Sum deal could follow, based on market conditions and investor demand. “We’re not interested in executing a one-off transaction.”
Samruk-Kazyna met investors during a non-deal roadshow at the end of January.
“We feel there is a genuine interest in the Kazakh presence,” Zhakupov told IFR. “We think that we represent an interesting opportunity for local, institutional onshore and offshore investors.”
Alex Shupletsov, head of emerging markets coverage at TF International Securities, one of the banks on the Samruk-Kazyna NDR, said the investor feedback was “very positive”, and called the sovereign wealth fund “a rare bird”.
“For the past 35 years, Central Asian issuers were quite skewed towards Russian and Western capital markets as their major source of funding,” said Shupletsov. “The reason is that investors and issuers do not know each other. That is why we put a lot of effort into these marketing activities.”
The Baa1/BBB–/BBB rated borrower is “currency agnostic” in its approach to the debt capital markets and will look at other potential issues in other currencies in 2026 opportunistically. The renminbi makes sense, said Zhakupov, as the currency is a diversifier and China is Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner. Kazakhstan is also the country where China’s Belt and Road initiative was announced.
“The US dollar remains one of the main global currencies in the world. What we’re seeing is not de-dollarisation in particular, but rather a multicurrency optimisation,” said Zhakupov. “We want to achieve by this bond an increased resilience of our enterprise against potential future challenges … The strategy is, again, diversification and resilience but not substitution.”
“China is one of our main trading partners. Renminbi is becoming a more and more interesting and practical currency to have in our portfolio,” said Zhakupov, calling renminbi debt “a natural interest” for Kazakhstan businesses. Last year, China became the largest trading partner of Central Asian countries, surpassing Russia.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see new issuances in the near future by Kazakh businesses,” Zhakupov said.
In 2025, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan raised Rmb2bn (US$279m) from 3.35% three-year Dim Sum bonds. Kazakh state-owned oil company KazMunayGas also debuted with a Rmb1.25bn 2.95% five-year bond.
TF International's Shupletsov said there are multiple reasons why central Asian borrowers are turning to the renminbi market, including pricing advantages and a need for renminbi to pay Chinese contractors, which are often working on infrastructure projects.
“I expect this year DCM would be much more active in terms of new offerings from international issuers from Belt and Road countries,” he said.