Askar is a senior associate in Almaty office and focuses particularly on capital markets and structured and banking finance as well as M&A transactions.

Askar has an extensive work experience at the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan as well as at an international consulting company in London.

Examples of recent representative transactions include:

• Advising BTA Bank and Alliance Bank in their financial restructurings (ground-breaking transactions for Kazakhstan banking sector acknowledged worldwide) and BTA Bank in its second financial restructuring;
• Advising JSC "Sovereign Wealth Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" in acquisition of a controlling stake in Alliance Bank;
• Advising KazTransOil on its People’s IPO programme (the first wave of People’s IPO);
• Advising ATF Bank’s shareholders on sale of the bank to UniCredit (the first major foreign investment in the sector);
• Advising ATF Bank on sale of its subsidiary pension fund;
• Representing Alliance Bank in an LSE-listed offering of GDRs;
• Developing a local derivative documentation (ISDA analogue) for HSBC Kazakhstan and VTB and advising various foreign institutions such as RBS, Citigroup, Societe Generale, UniCredit and others on capacity of Kazakhstan entities to enter into various derivative transactions;
• Representing lead managers in international debt offerings by numerous Kazakhstan companies such as Intergas Central Asia, Kazkommertsbank, KazMunayGas, Development Bank of Kazakhstan, ATF Bank and others;
• Representing dealer managers in connection with tender offers and consent solicitations relating to the Eurobonds issued or guaranteed by various Kazakhstan companies such as Kazatomprom, Development Bank of Kazakhstan and Zhaikmunai;
• Representing either local borrowers or foreign lenders in numerous pre-export trade, structured financing transactions and syndicated loans to Ivolga Group of Companies, ENRC, Kazatomprom, KazMunayGas, Kazagrofinance and others;
• ENRC Logistics on the project financing of the Khorgas-Zhetygen Railway Line under the concession obtained from the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan; and
• Advising Eurasian Bank on acquisition and integration of a consumer finance business from Societe Generale.

Bars and Courts
Kazakhstan Bar Association

Education
GDL/LPC courses, BPP Law School, London, UK, 2006
LLM, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, 2000
LLB, Kazakh State Law University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, with honours, 1999

Languages
Russian
English

Citizenship
Kazakhstan