Qatari Owners Paid Hundreds Of Millions To Managers Of Bank Bought From Kazakhstan

Bereke Bank paid nearly one billion tenge in remuneration to its top managers after being sold to a Qatari investor, Orda.kz reports.

In 2024, Kazakhstan’s state holding Baiterek sold Bereke Bank to Qatar’s Lesha Bank for 65 billion tenge. After the audit report for that year was released, it became known that the bank’s net profit had fallen by 44.1%.

However, according to a document published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange website, the bank’s managers received 923,439,206 tenge in 2025.

The same document states that Bereke Bank’s net income amounted to 63.1 billion tenge — five times higher than the previous year. Over the year, the bank’s assets increased to 2.8 trillion tenge, while its capital rose to 238 billion tenge.

Until October 2024, the bank belonged to the state holding Baiterek. The holding then sold 100% of its shares to Lesha Bank LLC (Public). According to KASE data as of January 2026, Lesha Bank remains Bereke Bank’s sole shareholder.

Original author: Ilya Astakhov

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