Kazakhstan is a familiar market for international banks. What is new, however, is the momentum behind the country’s return to the international syndicated loan market. After several years of relatively limited activity, we are once again seeing larger transactions, a broader base of international banks and financing structures that go well beyond traditional plain vanilla lending.
An important signal was Halyk Bank’s return to the international syndication market in 2024. Initially launched at USD 200 million, the facility was increased to USD 300 million in response to demand. Twelve banks from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia participated. It was Halyk’s first international syndication since 2008.
ForteBank followed in 2025 with its debut in the international syndicated loan market. In 2026, the bank took a further step with a new USD 300 million facility, and adding a two-year tenor. AKA played a leading role as Bookrunner and Mandated Lead Arranger alongside ADCB, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, FAB and Mashreq. The proceeds are intended to finance projects in the real sector of Kazakhstan’s economy.
These transactions show that the international bank lending market is opening up again for Kazakhstan. What makes this development particularly interesting is that it already extends beyond the banking sector.
More than a market for banks
The mining sector provides a good example. In October 2025, Kazakh gold producer AK Altynalmas raised a five-year, unsecured syndicated loan of USD 220 million. The syndicate comprised Société Générale, ING, Natixis, Halyk Bank and Bank CenterCredit. The facility supports, among other things, the optimisation of the company’s financing structure and its working capital needs.
I consider this transaction particularly noteworthy. International and local banks are jointly financing a Kazakh corporate borrower for five years, a significantly longer tenor than in many traditional emerging-market syndications.
The commodities sector also offers considerable potential for structured solutions. Companies such as Kazakhmys have used pre-export and prepayment financings in the past. For copper, uranium, gold and other strategic commodities, pre-export finance, offtake and prepayment structures, as well as credit insurance, can therefore play an important role alongside conventional corporate loans.
This is one of Kazakhstan’s distinctive features. It has a banking sector with borrowers able to access international financing, as well as large commodities, infrastructure and energy companies with substantial long-term capital needs.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan und Azerbaijan: Three distinct markets
A regional comparison reveals clear differences. In recent years, Uzbekistan has become Central Asia’s most active international syndicated loan market by number of transactions. State-owned banks and larger commercial banks in particular are regular borrowers. As a result, traditional international syndications for financial institutions are more frequent in this market.
Azerbaijan, by contrast, is smaller and more concentrated. International bank liquidity is focused more closely on a limited number of large banks and state-linked borrowers, as well as the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Kazakhstan has a different market structure. So far, it has seen fewer traditional financial institution syndications than Uzbekistan, but its potential borrower and project base is broader. Alongside banks such as Halyk and Forte, there are large companies in mining and metals, oil and gas, transport and logistics, and increasingly in renewable energy and infrastructure.
Kazakhstan’s potential should therefore be assessed beyond the number of syndications completed each year. The more significant question is what types of financings the market can generate in the future.
From plain vanilla to structured finance
Traditional senior unsecured facilities currently remain prominent among publicly disclosed international syndications. However, there is no comprehensive public dataset that reliably breaks down the Kazakh market into plain vanilla, structured and export credit agency (ECA)-backed financing.
Developments over recent years nevertheless indicate where the market could be heading. Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) provides a strong example. A facility of approximately EUR 770 million, provided by Société Générale and Natixis and backed by the French export credit agency Bpifrance Assurance Export, finances the procurement of freight locomotives. The financing has a long-term maturity extending to 2035/36. Other ECA-backed facilities are also in place for freight and passenger locomotives.
The financing of the Almaty Railway Bypass takes this a step further. In 2026, KTZ agreed financing with AIIB, IFC and Standard Chartered totalling approximately CHF 243 million, supported by a guarantee from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
This illustrates the real strength of structured finance. A single bank does not have to cover the entire risk. Commercial banks, development banks, export credit agencies and guarantors act in concert and equally share the risk enabling longer tenors and larger financing volumes than a conventional corporate loan could support.
Where are the greatest opportunities?
I see four areas as particularly interesting.
Firstly, transport and logistics. Kazakhstan’s geographical position between China and Europe, and the growing importance of the Middle Corridor, require substantial investment in railways, ports, logistics centres and other infrastructure. The KTZ financings already demonstrate the role that international banks, ECAs and multilateral institutions can play.
Secondly, energy and energy transition. Kazakhstan remains a major producer of fossil fuels, but it also has enormous potential in wind and solar power, as well as electricity grids and energy storage technologies.
The Mirny wind project illustrates the scale such financings can reach. The EBRD is arranging a financing of up to USD 548 million for Aktas Energy, including a B loan of up to USD 298 million to be syndicated to China Construction Bank, Qatar National Bank, Société Générale and Standard Chartered. The project combines a large-scale wind farm with battery storage technology.
Thirdly, mining and metallurgy. Electrification, digitalisation and the global energy transition are making copper, uranium, gold and other strategic commodities increasingly important. Altynalmas demonstrates that international banks also provide conventional corporate financing for this sector. For new mines, expansion projects and processing facilities, ECA-backed, pre-export and other structured solutions can provide additional financing options.
And finally, industrial diversification. Opportunities become particularly interesting where Kazakhstan processes its raw materials domestically, creating additional value rather than simply exporting them. Mechanical engineering, chemicals, agribusiness and raw material processing could bring new borrowers to the international bank lending market.
The role of international banks
International banks should see their role as extending beyond the provision of additional credit lines. Their task increasingly involves bringing together different sources of capital: international and local commercial banks, ECAs, development banks, multilateral guarantors and credit insurers. This allows risks to be shared, tenors to be extended and larger financing volumes to be mobilised.
I consider this model particularly relevant for Kazakhstan. Many upcoming investments will be too large, too long-term or too complex to be financed solely through traditional bilateral bank loans.
What can AKA Bank contribute?
This is precisely where AKA has a role to play. Our strength extends beyond providing our own loan tranche. We can structure financings, bring international banks into a syndicate and use additional instruments to share risk among several parties.
These include traditional syndicated loans as well as ECA-backed financing, credit insurance, guarantees and other forms of risk sharing.
Our role as Arranger and Bookrunner of ForteBank’s USD 300 million facility demonstrates that AKA is already actively involved in Kazakhstan’s syndication market.
Why, then, should Kazakh banks and companies talk to AKA? In my view, financing should begin with a question rather than a particular product: how can we structure a project to access the broadest possible range of suitable international sources of capital?
The answer may be a traditional syndicated loan. It may also be a combination of commercial bank funding, ECA cover, development bank participation and credit insurance. This ability to bring different financing sources together will become increasingly important for Kazakhstan.
Why Kazakhstan?
For me, Kazakhstan is a country that is more internationally engaged, economically ambitious and entrepreneurial than is often recognised from abroad.
During my visits and conversations in the country, I have been particularly struck by the willingness to build long-term business relationships with international partners, rather than treating them simply as a short-term source of capital.
From the perspective of my work, the combination of economic scale, vast natural resources, a strategic location and substantial investment needs make Kazakhstan exceptionally interesting.
Halyk, Forte, Altynalmas, KTZ and Mirny represent different aspects of the same development, ranging from traditional unsecured bank lending through corporate syndications and ECA-backed financing to complex project finance.
This is the real story of Kazakhstan’s loan market. The question goes beyond whether more syndicated loans will be completed in the future. What matters is that financings are becoming larger, more international and more demanding in their structure. That is where the opportunity lies, both for Kazakhstan and for its international financing partners.