Author: Rushdi al-Pashia

London, Brussels (27/04 – 33) Kazakh entrepreneur and philanthropist Kenes Rakishev’s acquired company, Oxus Acquisition Corp. and Borealis Foods Inc. announced the signing of a definitive business combination agreement in February this year. This alliance is expected to result in a newly combined company under the name Borealis Foods Inc. Upon the signing, the company will continue to be led by Borealis’ CEO and co-founder Reza Soltanzadeh, and chairman and co-Founder Barthelemy Helg. The boards of directors of Borealis and Oxus have each unanimously approved the proposed $150 million transaction. Borealis is a food technology company that has created ramen meals that…

Tajikistan has been downgraded from ‘repressed’ to ‘closed’ in a new report by the CIVICUS Monitor, a global research collaboration that rates and tracks fundamental freedoms in 197 countries and territories. According to the report, People Power Under Attack 2022, repressive measures taken by the authorities in response to mass protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) led to the downgrade. ‘Closed’ is the worst rating a country can receive by the CIVICUS Monitor. In reality, it means that an atmosphere of fear prevails in Tajikistan, where people are routinely imprisoned and attacked for exercising their fundamental rights of freedom of association,…

BAKU, Azerbaijan – A delegation from Saudi Arabia visited the Khatlon region of Tajikistan on April 6, according to the regional authorities, Trend reports via Tajik media. The delegation’s visit is expected to enhance cooperation and facilitate joint ventures and investment projects in the region. The region’s leadership stressed the significance of cultural, humanitarian, and educational ties between the two nations to strengthen their collaboration, adding that Several Days of Culture of Saudi Arabia have been held in Tajikistan. One of the key areas for cooperation highlighted was tourism, which is an important sector in Tajikistan’s economy, and the government…

Ukraine hacktivists tricked a group of Russian military wives into posing for a photo shoot that outed the identities of their husbands — who were purportedly responsible for bombing a Mariupol theater-turned-shelter last March, killing hundreds of civilians.The virtual false-flag operation exposed 12 elite Kremlin combat pilots to potential war crime charges in connection with both the brutal theatre massacre and hundreds of other airstrikes on Ukrainian homes and businesses, the Kyiv Post reported.It was spearheaded by Cyber Resistance, a Ukrainian hacker group that engages in guerrilla warfare, and InformNapalm, a Ukraine volunteer journalism outfit that investigates Russian war efforts, according to the latter group.Cyber Resistance was…

Astana, Beijing, Seoul (20/2 – 60) Kazakhstan has been a dominant force in boxing at the Asian Games, winning eight gold medals and 20 total medals since 1994. It’s almost a tradition that Kazakhstan wins gold medals at boxing at the Asian Games. Kazakhstan first competed at the Asian Games in 1994. Since then, boxing has won gold medals for the Central Asian country. In 1994, Hiroshima, Japan, Nurzhan Smanov (welterweight) and Kanatbek Shagatayev (light-middleweight) were the Kazakhstani gold medalists. Four years later in Bangkok, Thailand, three Kazakhstani boxers won gold medals. They were Yermakhan Ibraimov (light-middleweight), Vyacheslav Burba (middleweight),…

This is stated in an extract from the system of registers of shareholders The share of businessman Kenes Rakishev in the Fincraft investment house decreased to 9.9%. This is stated in an extract from the system of registers of shareholders of Fincraft Investment House JSC as of March 7, 2023, posted on the website of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), the correspondent of the Kapital.kz business information center reports. According to KASE, as of January 1, 2023, the share of businessman Kenes Rakishev in the company was 40%. According to this extract of shareholders, the total number of declared ordinary shares of the…

London, Brussels, Berlin (11/2 – 38) Kenes Rakishev is an entrepreneur and international businessman, and a former Kazakh special envoy to the United States. Rakishev is a reflection of the new Kazakhstan. Young, educated, worldly, and successful. One of Kenes Rakishev’s notable success was when he took over majority of Qazkom’s shares and engineered the rebranding from its predecessor, Kazkommertsbank. To improve Qazkom, Rakishev worked on the distressed asset management company BTA, formerly a bank. At that point, Qazkom’s loan portfolio was made up of legacy toxic loans from BTA Bank. The bank suffered massive losses due to frauds committed…

Kenes Rakhisev, chairman of Board of Directors at Kazakhstan’s Fincraft Resources, and Sandeep Jajodia, managing director of Indian holding company Monnet Group, reached an agreement to jointly establish a ferroalloy plant in Kazakhstan. A memorandum of understanding was signed in Astana on December 14, 2022. The plant is ceremoniously named TB Alloys Kazakh Limited. The new plant is envisioned to be constructed in the industrial zone of Taraz city with the company has already started preparation works. Taraz is the administrative seat of Jambyl region in the south of the country near the border with Kyrgyzstan. Initially, the plant will have…

ABU DHABI, 12th January, 2023 (WAM) — In his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has issued a law establishing Abu Dhabi Media Office. The new entity replaces Abu Dhabi Government Media Office, and has the Creative Media Authority and Abu Dhabi Media Company under its umbrella. As an independent entity, Abu Dhabi Media Office (ADMO) will oversee a unified media ecosystem in the emirate by establishing Abu Dhabi’s media strategy, as well as aligning the media plans and policies of Abu Dhabi Government entities, in addition to regulating and licensing…

Three years ago, International Holding Company was a little known company that ran fish farms and food and real estate businesses. It employed just 40 people. Today, the Abu Dhabi-listed group’s market capitalisation of $240bn is more than double that of global giants Siemens and GE and it has a headcount of 150,000. It is an extraordinary transformation that has largely gone unnoticed outside the United Arab Emirates, and is little understood — even by bankers based in the region. “Nobody knows,” said one Gulf-based international banker when asked to explain IHC’s dramatic growth. It is a common response to…