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Kenes Rakishev

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Kazakh investor and entrepreneur.
Kenges Rakishev
Кеңес Хамытұлы Рақышев
Born (1979-07-14) July 14, 1979 (age 45)
Almaty, Kazakhstan
NationalityKazakhstan
CitizenshipKazakhstan
EducationSaïd Business School, University of Oxford
Alma materKazakh Economic University
EmployerFincraft Group
OrganizationSaby Foundation
SpouseAselle Tasmagambetova
Parents
  • Khamit Rakishev (father)
  • Balzhan Rakisheva (mother)
HonoursOrder of Kurmet
Websitehttps://kengesrakishev.com

Kenges Rakishev (Kazakh: Кеңес Хамытұлы Рақышев; Russian: Кенес Хамитович Ракишев), also written Kenes, is an investor and entrepreneur from Kazakhstan.

He is the President and main shareholder of Fincraft Resources, a company listed in the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and is an active investor in natural resources, mining, energy and food security, as well as in venture capital.

He has been a member of the Kazakhstan's Forbes List since 2013. As of 2024, he occupies a position as the 19th richest person on the list, with an estimated wealth of $435 million.

Personal life

Rakishev was born on July 14, 1979. His father is Khamit Rakishev, who was the head of Kazakhstan's Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He studied Law at the Kazakh National Law Academy and Finance and Credit at the Kazakh Economic University. Later, he would attend the London Business School and the Saïd Business School (University of Oxford).

He has been married to Aselle Tasmagambetova, daughter of Imangali Tasmagambetov since 2000. They have four children.

Early career

In the late 1990s, he began his career as an advisor to the Road Safety Fund under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Following this role, he took on the position of manager at JSC KazTransGas in 2000, where he gained valuable experience in the energy sector. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as a specialist and later as the head of the Marketing Department of the Material and Technical Supply Department at Intergas Central Asia CJSC.

In 2002, he was appointed head of the Foreign Economic Activity Department at KazTransGas CJSC, to be later appointed First Deputy General Director for Export at KazMunaiGas Trading House LLP from January to October 2003. He would serve as Deputy General Director for Marketing at KazTransGas CJSC from 2003 to 2004.

In 2004, he became the General Director of Mercury LLP.

Investment career

He has been chairman of Net Element, and Fincraft Resources (formerly SAT & CO) which is listed at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange after its new name.

Fincraft Resources (SAT & CO)

In September 2007, Rakishev was appointed CEO of SAT & CO, an investment company within the mining industry and construction industry.

In 2008, SAT & CO successfully went public through a direct listing on KASE. During 2007 and 2008, the company expanded its reach into the metallurgical sector, acquiring strategic assets including corporations producing ferromanganese, chromium, nickel, and other minerals, as well as metallurgical plants in Kazakhstan and abroad.

In 2018, SAT & Company changed its name to Fincraft Resources JSC. By 2010, Fincraft Resources had invesments in over 50 corporations involved in metallurgy, oilfields, venture investments, and mining-related activities.

The company is still listed at KASE and serves as Rakishev's main investment vehicle.

Kazakhstan Engineering

In 2014, Rakishev joined the board of directors of JSC National Company Kazakhstan Engineering, a large holding combining 27 enterprises of the defence industry and munitions factories. He left the board one year later, upon the appointment of Imangali Tasmagambetov as the new Minister of Defence.

BTA Bank

In 2014, Rakishev bought the shares of BTA Bank from the Kazakh government after the administration of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, forcibly nationalized it in 2009 and seized it from Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of fraud.

At the moment of Rakishev's acquisition, the bank had 640,000 private customers and 75,000 corporate clients. The main assets of the company were its claims against Ablyazov, estimated at $5 billion.

In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, he continued to paid the salaries of all Ukrainian employees despite a stop in the bank’s operations and helped Kazakhstan citizens be evacuated from the country.

On February 6, 2014, JSC Kazkommertsbank and Kenes Rakishev reached a final agreement to acquire 46.5% of the shares of JSC BTA Bank each from JSC National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna. The acquisition and subsequent merger of BTA and KKB were expected to create the largest commercial bank in the region.

On February 14, 2014, Rakishev became the new chairman of BTA Bank's board of directors.

He sold his stake in BTA Bank in Kyrgyzstan in 2019, and in BTA Belarus in June 2024.

Kazkommertsbank

In March 2015, he became the largest shareholder of JSC Kazkommertsbank, controlling 16.02% of the shares. On January 19, 2015, Rakishev was elected as the new member of the board of directors.

By the beginning of August 2015, Rakishev increased his stake in Kazkommertsbank to 28.67% and then announced the preliminary agreement with Alnair Capital Holding (another large shareholder of the bank, controlling 28.08% of shares) to combine their respective shareholdings in Kazkommertsbank.

As a result of the proposed transaction, Rakishev would acquire legal ownership over the parent entity of JSC Alnair Capital Holding, becoming its General Partner and effectively acquire control over voting and other rights of Alnair's in the bank, controlling 56.75% of the bank's shares in total.

In April 2016 Rakishev significantly increased his stake in Kazkommertsbank after reaching an agreement with Nurzhan Subkhanberdin and JSC Central Asian Investment Company (CAIC).

As a result, Rakishev's direct holding in KKB increased from 28.67% to 43.15%, and he directly and indirectly (through JSC Qazaq Financial Group) controls 71.23% of KKB common shares.

Central Asia Metals

In 2013, Rakishev exchanged a 40% stake in the Kounrad copper project in Kazakhstan for a 20% stake in Central Asia Metals Plc. CAML was listed in the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange. He was then appointed a non-executive director. British weekly financial magazine Investors' Chronicle described CAML as "a real lesson in diversification".

In 2017, CAML raised $186.6 million through an additional issue to purchase the Sasa zinc deposit in Macedonia from Lynx Resources Limited for $402.5 million.

In 2018, he sold his stake in the mining conglomerate and left the board of the company. During his time at the company, its value increased fivefold – from $100 million to $500 million, as per media sources.

Petropavlovsk PLC

In 2018, after leaving Central Asia Metals, he invested his earnings into 28,3% share of Petropavlovsk, a then distressed Russian Mining Company also listed on the London Stock Exchange.

He bought the stake from Viktor Vekselberg, who exited the company after a boardroom dispute with its founders. Rakishev sold the stake in Petropavlovsk a year later to Roman Trotsenko having turned around the miner’s performance.

Playing the role of activist investor, he purchased his initial shares for about five pence per share, pushing management changes after a near-collapse in 2014. He joined the board and became its majority shareholder.

In July 2019, he exited the company at around 9.8 pence per share, nearly doubling his investment in about two years. Reuters noted on July 16, 2019, Mr. Rakishev would be investing the proceeds of his Petropavlovsk exit in certain cobalt and nickel projects as he looks to transition into investing in the "green economy."

Kaznickel

After divesting from Petropavlovsk Plc., Rakishev focused on Kaznickel, a nickel and cobalt exploration company. The company maintains the nickel and cobalt Gornostayevskoye deposit near the city of Semey.

Although its Gornostayevskoye deposit is over 100 years old, the company has applied cutting-edge technology to mine 1,000.8 thousand tonnes of nickel and 66 of cobalt necessary to develop electric cars.

The project was widely featured in a New York Times article in July 2024.

Recent Mining Investments

In December 2022, he acquired a 50% stake in the British Equus Petroleum Limited, a British company that operates in Kazakhstan through Kumkol Trans Service LLP, exploits the Sarybulak oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan.

In early 2024, his company Fincraft Resources notified KASE of  the acquisition of a 50% stake in Nomad West Oil LLP, a company founded in May 2023 with exploration and production rights to the Tastobe site in Mangistau.

In September 2024, Mr. Rakishev bought 40% of he oil and gas company Beineu Petroleum Ltd, as announced in a public filing.  Beineu Petroleum Limited is working to begin drilling two wells in the Beineu district of Mangistau region to explore for oil and gas deposits.

Later, next to Shukhrat Ibragimov, Rakishev acquired the shares of JSC Shubarkol Premium, which runs a large coal mining operation in the Karaganda region. The company is listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.

In October, 2024 he agreed to acquire 26.95% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Tethys Petroleum Limited, an oil and gas company with its primary listing on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange and is also listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

In November, 2024, Fincraft Group announced the purchase of 26.95% of the shares of Tethys Petroleum Limited, an oil and gas exploration company focused on Central Asia for 16,73 million dollars. Tethys is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Oxus Capital, Central Asia's first SPAC, listed in Nasdaq

In 2021, Rakishev became the lead investor in Nasdaq-listed Oxus Acquisition Corp., the first Central Asian SPAC.

The company raised $172.5 million in 2021 through its IPO and successfully merged in February 2024 with Borealis Foods Inc. via a Business Combination Agreement, and got listed February 2024 at 9.8 USD a share. Borealis Foods produces plant-based, ready-to-eat meals sold in the U.S. and Canada. Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay is one of the shareholders in the company.

Venture Capital

Rakishev has been an active Venture Capital investor for almost two decades. He was named by the global edition of Forbes Magazine, in 2014, as a “startup nation-mover-shaker you need to know”.

He was Chairman of the Board of Net Element, a Nasdaq-listed company investing in tech ventures. In 2021, Net Element merged with Mullen Automotive, an American automotive and electric vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Brea, California.

He was also a member of the board of Fastlane Ventures and one of the main investors behind Singulariteam, a VC fund that invested in 12 companies operating in space technologies, Internet and mobile technologies. Rakishev invested $20 million in a social media platform for sharing photos and videos called Mobli. In 2015, Rakishev bought Sedmoi Kanal (Channel Seven), a Kazakhstan national TV channel.

In February 2024, Mr. Rakishev announced the creation of a new venture capital firm, bYb Capital, aimed at boosting technology startups in Kazakhstan towards the rest of the world. The company has offices in Almaty and an office in Palo Alto, California.

The fund translated Alex Dang and Ilya Strebulaev book “The Venture Mindset” into Kazakh.

Philantropy

In 2002, he co-founded the Saby Foundation with his wife, Aselle Tasmagambetova. The Saby Charitable Foundation is one of Kazakhstan's first private charity organizations, and one of the largest in the region. The Foundation seeks to implement large-scale socially significant projects in the medical, educational, and sports fields.

Some past programs of the Foundation’s include Orkendeu (a building program to improve the conditions of children living in social care), Sport-Health Achievements (a program geared for sport and health), Youth Program (a program aimed at supporting abandoned and orphaned children), A Decent Life for Disabled People (a program created to increase accessibility of public spaces for people with disabilities), Give Life to Children (a digital campaign collecting funds for sick children), The Medical Project (aimed at upgrading the medical system in Kazakhstan through the construction of hospitals and medical facilities) or the Alem Program for the Support of Young Talents (a program that helps gifted children and young people develop their talents).

In 2020, Rakishev and his wife, Aselle, created the Shoqan Walikhanov School in the former capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty. It was named after Shoqan Walikhanov, a nineteenth-century Kazakh explorer and scholar. Founded as a non-profit, it accommodates 1,300 students.

Sports Interests

In 2009, Rakishev headed the Almaty city branch of Kazakhstan Boxing Federation and in 2010 was elected as its vice-president. In 2011, Rakishev was elected as vice-president of the (ASBC) Asian Boxing Confederation.

From 2012 to 2016, he was the President of the Kazakhstan Judo Federation. From 2019 to 2024, he was the president of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation.

He has acted as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, as well as former Vice President of the National Sports Association of Kazakhstan.

Orders and Merits

References

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