Verny Capital to build $300 million tower complex in Astana

ASTANA. June 18. KAZINFORM Verny Capital, the Kazakh manager of billionaire Bulat Utemuratov's money, plans to spend $300 million to build a commercial and hotel complex in Astana, the country's capital.

The Talan Towers project will include a 30-floor, 145-meter (475-foot) office building and a 26-story residential complex with a Ritz-Carlton hotel, Verny said in a statement distributed today to reporters in Astana, where's it's based.

The central Asian nation, which holds about 3 percent of the world's oil and is the largest uranium supplier, moved its capital to Astana from Almaty in 1998. Verny manages about $4 billion of assets in industries from energy to telecommunications in countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Austria, according to the company's website.

Verny already owns hotels under the Ritz-Carlton brand, in Moscow and Vienna, Kazinform refers to Bloomberg.