Bpifrance and Samruk-Kazyna Reveal Launch of Co-Investment Platform
Posted on 10/30/2020
Despite COVID-19 headwinds, bilateral investment fund growth in terms of deals and JVs are showing no signs of slowing down. Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, and the sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan Samruk-Kazyna JSC announced the launch of a 100 million euros co-investment platform dedicated to French and Kazakhstani companies to contribute to the development of trade and economic relations between the two countries.
This bilateral investment platform will target French, Kazakhstani or joint-venture SMEs and intermediate-sized companies operating in industry, energy and environmental transition, agriculture, education, and healthcare. For example, Kazakhstan is a major exporter of wheat and flour.
The governmental partners will invest tickets in the range of 10 to 40 million euros and leverage their expertise and respective networks to support the development of portfolio companies in France, in Kazakhstan, and in Central Asia. Some of the opportunities identified as part of the platform will be presented for co-investments to other strategic sovereign wealth fund partners of Bpifrance and Samruk-Kazyna.
“We are extremely pleased to launch this new co-investment platform with Samruk-Kazyna, which will allow us to jointly support French companies looking to seize the many opportunities offered by Kazakhstan and Central Asia. This region benefits from abundant natural resources, notably agricultural resources, and a strategic position at the crossroads of Asia, Russia and Europe.” states Pascal Lagarde, Executive director in charge of international affairs at Bpifrance in a press release. “We are determined to continue developing our relations with foreign sovereign wealth funds in order to create long-term and international trade and economic ties.”
Yerzhan Tutkushev, Managing Director for Logistics and International cooperation – Member of the Management Board at Samruk-Kazyna, commented in a press release: “Samruk-Kazyna welcomes the development of partnership with Bpifrance in the form of co-investment platform for an amount of €100 mln. Being a sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan, we are now embarking on a new stage of development – a transformation into the investment holding. Partnership with Bpifrance will help us to attract the best international practices in order to transform our long-term vision into reality. We are interested in a long-term relationship through co-investments with a long investment horizon in different opportunities in Kazakhstan and on international markets.”
France-Kazakhstan
French companies have a history of investing in Kazakhstan. For example, Total S.A. started operating in Kazakhstan in 1992.
Cross-Border
Bpifrance has a track record of partnering with cross-border governmental investors. In December 2019, Bpifrance, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and the French company ORPEA Group agreed to invest for the construction of new medical rehabilitation centers in Russia.
Samruk-Kazyna JSC was formed in 2008 and in recent times began making efforts to identify international partners to co-invest in opportunities within Kazakhstan.