Assaubayev family to buy back KazakhGold assets

Russia’s top gold miner, Polyus Gold has said it will return KazakhGold’s assets to its former owners in exchange for about $509 million, while retaining the Kazakh miner’s London listing. Polyus Gold acquired KazakhGold, which controls the KazakhAltyn mining company, in 2009, though the Kazakh government annulled the sale in July following a series of legal conflicts with the miner’s former owners, the Assaubayev family.

Polyus had planned to engineer a reverse takeover via its KazakhGold unit in an unusual transaction that would have allowed the Russian company to increase its liquidity and make the combined group eligible for a listing on the London Stock Exchange’s premium category. However, PolyusGold halted these efforts in October, following a series of legal disputes with the Kazakh government and the Assaubayev family, which previously owned the London listed company.

At the time, Polyus said it still hoped to complete the reverse takeover, and as it has retained the KazkhGold’s London listing, such a move is still possible. PolyusGold, controlled by Russian billionaires Mikhail Prokhorov and Suleiman Kerimov, will receive the $509 million in two separate tranches from the Assaubayev family.