Kazakh bank Alliance posts $1.5 bln 9-month loss

ALMATY, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Alliance bank (ALLBq.L), a large Kazakh lender due to be taken over by the government as part of a debt restructuring deal, posted a 224 billion tenge ($1.5 billion) January-September loss on Thursday.

Alliance, which lost 988 million tenge ($7 million) in the same period of 2008, went into default this year and is finalising a debt restructuring deal that will see its $4.3 billion debt cut by over $3 billion.

The bank, whose financial reports calculated to international accounting standards were published by the Kazakh stock exchange on Thursday, has blamed the default on bad loans and a previously undisclosed $1.1 billion asset pledge.

The government has said it could sell the lender to a strategic investor after in the future. It has also accused the former majority shareholders of Alliance of stealing $112 million from it. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Simon Jessop)