THROUGHOUT THE MINI-MELTDOWN of Kazakhstan’s banking sector, just one institution has escaped largely unscathed. Almaty-based Halyk Bank has thrived while others, notably local rivals BTA and Kazkommertsbank, have faltered over the past year. Halyk’s shares have slipped recently – thanks in part to underwhelming first-quarter 2008 earnings in a troubled market – but it remains a favourite among analysts, with buy ratings from Kazakhstan’s Visor Capital and Moscow’s Renaissance Capital. Halyk is still the only local lender to have issued a Eurobond this year: its $500 million, five-and-a-half-year issuance in April 2008 was the first such offering in nine months, and the only Kazakh-overseas debt sale this year. In 2007, the bank posted a 49% rise in net income, to $336 million. During the third and fourth quarter of 2007, it was one of the only Kazakh banks still disbursing loans while the market contracted.
Behind Halyk’s rise lies a relatively simple and old-fashioned concept, one that has been largely forgotten in the years of global plenty: avoid excessive risks; lend only to those corporations and interests able or likely to repay their loans; and use the profit to steadily grow other service offerings.
