BTA denies seeking to nationalize Temir Bank

(Adds details, background)

By Olzhas Auyezov

ALMATY, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's top bank BTA BTAS.KZ moved to quash market speculation on Friday that it had decided to nationalise its Temir Bank subsidiary, saying it was looking at various options to sell the unit.

Speculation that the deepening financial crisis may force the government to nationalise one or more of the banks has gripped the market this month, but so far the banks have denied there are any plans to do this.

BTA, which has $28 billion in total assets, has long said it might sell retail-focused Temir Bank to a foreign buyer, but on Thursday some media reported that it had decided to sell it to the government as part of the state bail-out plan.

BTA Chief Executive Roman Solodchenko said the report was just "rumour". He said the bank was looking at various ways of selling Temir, but it was not currently in talks with any potential foreign partners.

"The current situation (in the global markets) does not allow for such negotiations to take place," he told reporters.

BTA shares were suspended on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange on Friday after they tumbled 40 percent to 8,401 Kazakh tenge

($69.1).

CEO Solodchenko also said that BTA had no intention of merging with any other domestic players and that there had been no change to its deal made in December with the government to gain capitalisation by selling the state a stake.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's biggest economy, has been hit hard by the financial crisis after years of aggressive growth, spurred by booming commodity prices and cheap foreign credit.

The government announced a $21 billion economic rescue package in December but has reassured investors it has no plans to use the crisis to embark on large-scale nationalisation.

However, it has agreed to buy stakes of about 25 percent in four of the biggest banks to help them survive the crisis and has pledged to prevent any local banks from failing. Solodchenko said the new share issue to be offered to the state, which was approved by shareholders on Friday, represented a 26.9 stake.

The CEO told reporters BTA had enough cash to repay its $1.7 billion foreign debt even if it did not secure state funding.

BTA later said it had recalculated the foreign debt figure to $2 billion from the $1.7 bln announced earlier.

Analysts have said implementation of the government's $21 billion package will be key to steering the $100 billion economy out of crisis, but uncertainly over the bank capitalisation plan and rising bad loans have worried investors.

While two banks, Kazkommertsbank (KKGByq.L) and Halyk (HSBKq.L), have already agreed on terms of their stake sale, BTA and No.4 bank Alliance (ALLBq.L) are still in talks, with little information coming out on the progress of their negotiations.

Alliance this week played down rumours the government was buying a controlling stake in it, saying it was still in talks with the state.

Samruk-Kazyna, the state holding in charge of allocating crisis money, has refused to comment on any speculations about the nation's banks.

($1=121.47)

(Additional reporting by Masha Gordeyeva; Writing by Maria Golovnina; editing by Karen Foster)

((maria.golovnina@reuters.com; +7 727 250 85 00; Reuters Messaging: maria.golovnina.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: BTA/

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