The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement to invest in the leasing subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s second largest bank, Bank TuranAlem (BTA) , together with Orix Corporation of Japan, the largest Japanese leasing company, and Orix Leasing Pakistan.

IFC will become a minority shareholder in the new joint venture, BTA Orix Leasing.

The joint venture partners will provide institutional capacity building to expand BTA’s leasing operations. In addition, risk management and corporate governance will be strengthened through technical expertise from the Orix group. These measures will help BTA meet private sector financing needs in a better way and consolidate its position as one of Kazakhstan’s leading leasing companies.

Khosrow Zamani, IFC’s director for Southern Europe and Central Asia, notes: “One of our main objectives in Kazakhstan is to help specialised financial institutions like BTA Leasing provide a better service to SME clients. IFC and its co-investors aim to ensure BTA Leasing’s sustainable business success and will provide broad support, including capacity building efforts and know-how transfer.”

Orix Leasing Pakistan’s chief executive officer, Humayun Murad, adds: “This is the Orix group’s first venture in the region with IFC and Bank TuranAlem. Kazakhstan is making tremendous economic progress and is ideally suited for the development of SME-oriented leasing, in which Orix specialises.”