London, 15 October. Britain's Nostrum Oil & Gas has completed the sale of its Kazakh assets, its stakes in Zhaikmunai LLP and Positiv Invest LLP, to Altaris Holding Ltd., a company linked to businessman Kenes Rakishev; the deal closed on 15 October at a price of $304.6 million at completion, which may still be adjusted (Forbes Kazakhstan, NRG Monitor).
Altaris Holding is registered at the Astana International Financial Centre; 51% of it belongs to Alturion Holding Limited and 49% to Fincraft Energy Holding Limited (Forbes Kazakhstan, NRG Monitor). Of the deal amount, $10 million has been placed in an escrow account for at least six months to cover possible claims under the seller's warranties (oilgazKZ).
After the sale Nostrum fully repaid its secured notes due in 2026 and plans to buy back $417.5 million of unsecured notes; the company no longer has an operating business in Kazakhstan and is moving to a managed wind-down (Forbes Kazakhstan, NRG Monitor).
Rakishev intends to combine the new assets with the Borankol gas processing plant: "The acquisition creates a Kazakh two-cluster gas processing platform," he said. According to him, a north-western cluster will form around the Chinarevskoye complex and Stepnoy Leopard, and a west-Caspian cluster around the Borankol plant, Tolkyn, Borankol and West Prorva (oilgazKZ). In an interview with Hronika.kz he said Fincraft Group expects to raise throughput at the Borankol plant to 1.2 billion cubic metres of gas a year within two to three years (Hronika.kz).
Background: Nostrum had worked in Kazakhstan since 1997 and, by its own account, invested more than $2.5 billion in the country (oilgazKZ, NRG Monitor). Rakishev announced his intention to create a gas hub based on the Borankol plant as early as August 2026 (Kapital.kz). The design capacity of Zhaikmunai's gas processing plant is 4 billion cubic metres a year, NRG Monitor notes (NRG Monitor).
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