A new entity has appeared in the register of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) - Chaiz Capital Ltd. Its sole shareholder is businessman Sergey Chaizhunusov, a representative of an industrial dynasty from East Kazakhstan Region (EKR) and Abai Region, who heads the design institute Kazgiprotsvetmet and owns assets in construction, trade and agriculture. The Chaizhunusov surname has long been familiar in Kazakhstani media. The businessman's younger brother, Dalen Chaizhunusov, married Venera Nazarbayeva, the daughter of Dariga Nazarbayeva, in 2018.
WHAT CHAIZ CAPITAL IS
The holding's authorised capital consists of 100 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 500 tenge each, and the main type of activity is listed as the operation of holding companies. Chaizhunusov is the sole shareholder of the new entity.
GOLD UNDER RIDDER AND A SOLIDCORE TRACE
The holding was registered against the backdrop of Chaizhunusov's plans for precious metal exploration. Together with Nurlan Kapenov, the founder of the Qazaq Green association, he owns the company Hi-Teck Qazaqstan, which owns Dala Metall.
The entity announced exploration for gold at the Starkovskoye gold-polymetallic deposit - 35 km from Ridder, on a plot with an area of 32.84 sq km. The work is scheduled for 2026–2031.
Interestingly, the announcement of public hearings on the project lists an email address on the solidcore-resources.kz domain - the domain of Solidcore Resources (formerly Polymetal), Kazakhstan's largest gold miner, which already operates in Ridder.
THE CHAIZHUNUSOV INDUSTRIAL DYNASTY
Sergey's father - Tokan Chaizhunusov - ran the Vostokkazkolkhozstroy trust and was president of Kazgiprotsvetmet LLP in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Sergey Chaizhunusov, in turn, headed KazTrubprom JSC and KazPetroMashKommerz LLP, and in May 2016, together with Sanzhar Rakhmetzhanov and Arman Yesmurzaev, created the INTESSA Group holding, which included the KPSP design institute, the Ust-Kamenogorsk Industrial Valve Plant (UZPA), Eurasia Engineering & Construction and SecureTech Corporation.
THE PLANT THAT BROUGHT THE FAMILY HALF A BILLION IN LOSSES
UZPA, which specialises in pipeline valves for oil and gas pipelines, formally belongs to Sergey Chaizhunusov's wife - Gulnara, through the company Mitsar 2013 (80% of shares; another 10% each held by Valentina Sim and Dinara Ashimova), while the businessman himself sits on the board of directors.
At the end of 2025, the plant posted a loss of 522 million tenge - against a profit of 1.9 billion tenge a year earlier. At the same time, the plant's sole member of the management board, director Yerzhan Ashimov, was paid remuneration of 19.3 million tenge, which is only slightly less than the payments for the previous, profitable year.
WHAT THIS MEANS
More than seven years after Nursultan Nazarbayev left the presidency and the course towards a "New Kazakhstan" was proclaimed, much has changed, but the connections of that era are still noticeable in Kazakhstani business. And the story of the Chaizhunusov family is far from the only such case.
In April, in Akmola Region, a technical launch took place of a mining and processing plant based on the Alekseevskoye kaolin deposit, which was built by the company Qazaq Kaolin. A co-owner of the company is the father of former Almaty akim Bauyrzhan Baibek - Kadyrgali Baibek, whom the media describe as a classmate of Nursultan Nazarbayev.
