Seven top managers go as Kazakhstan restructures Samruk Kazyna

Samruk-Kazyna Director Urmizak Shukeyev

 Kazakhstan’s  Samruk Kazyna sovereign wealth fund  is to lose seven of its managing directors in a major restructure, the chairman of its management board Umirzak Shukeyev announced last week. All  of its activities are being grouped into three operation divisions – a commercial unit which will have responsibility for the portfolio management of current assets; a corporate unit, that will look after finance, human resource management and operational support; and a monitoring unit, that will supervise and implement  a new compliance function.
“We want to move from a  controller model to a commercial portfolio manager model,” he said, “so that the fund will add value by itself and will cease to perform the function of [imposing]an administrative superstructure on top of the  activities of national companies.” The model borrowed best world practices for similar holdings and sovereign wealth funds and had been developed with the participation of consultants from Deloitte, BCG and McKinsey, he added. 
Under the new regime, 60%  of the staff would  be involved in the  creation of new industries and management of the current portfolio, he predicted. He also stressed the importance of the “quick wins” factor to accelerate the transformation.
Shukeyev is, additionally, introducing a new centralised system of procurement that is expected to save the fund over $1bn.