White & Case Advises on US $700M Kazakh Railways Bond Issue

London, Almaty,  October 20, 2010 ... Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Barclays Capital, HSBC and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc as joint lead managers on a US $700 million Eurobond issue for Kazakhstan's state-owned railway, JSC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ).

"As a land-locked resource rich country, Kazakhstan relies heavily on its aging transport network, and despite the well publicised problems faced by the Kazakh banking sector, Kazakhstan continues to be an attractive market for international institutional investors as this heavily oversubscribed deal shows," said White & Case partner Stuart Matty, who led the team advising the joint lead managers. "Our ability to provide a team of lawyers working seamlessly from Almaty, London and Washington DC ensured we were able to deal with the complexities this type of transaction entails."

The 10-year bond, priced at 6.375%, is the first for KTZ since 2006.

White & Case has worked in Kazakhstan since 1992, where it has an office in Almaty. Most recently, the firm assisted the Kazakhstan government in drafting its restructuring laws following the global financial crisis, as well as advising two of the country's largest banks JSC Alliance Bank and JSC BTA Bank on the restructuring of their debts.

The Firm has advised Kazakhstan on four of its sovereign Eurobond offerings, as well as on numerous bank and corporate bond issues in the country, such as the then-largest ever emerging market corporate bond, a US$3 billion offering by KazMunaiGaz.

White & Case LLP's team was led by Stuart Matty, and comprised securities, banking, tax, corporate and regulatory lawyers from across four of the Firm's offices.

In London, the team included partners Michael Doran and Francis Fitzherbert-Brockholes; assisted by associates Melissa Butler and Ronan Mellon. The Almaty team included partners Marat Ibragimov and Michael Rayson, counsel Kairat Baizakov and associates Vilen Adjivefaev, Avaskan Asanaliyev, Pavel Kornilov, Mukhtar Nurzhigitov and Askar Zhansagimov.

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