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After more than a decade of deliberations, the U.S. fast-food
giant will launch an outlet in the Kazakh capital Astana on
March 8 after investing $3.5 million in the franchise project,
according to Khamzat Khasbulatov, president of McDonald's Russia
unit, which will support the expansion into Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh development licensee for McDonald's will be Kairat
Boranbayev, a local businessman and relative of veteran Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been at the helm of the
former Soviet republic since 1989.
"Kairat had been asking me this question - why are we not coming
to Kazakhstan for such a long time?" Khasbulatov told a news
conference in Moscow. "All logistics are now located closely to
Kazakhstan and there will be synergy with Belarus."
Russia's first McDonald's restaurant opened in Moscow in 1990, a
year before the break-up of the Soviet Union, and it now has a
total of 545 outlets. There are 11 McDonald's in adjacent
ex-Soviet republic of Belarus.
Boranbayev was previously involved in Kazakhstan's gas business
and his daughter is married to Nazarbayev's grandson.
Khasbulatov did not respond to a question whether Boranbayev's
personal connections to the Kazakh leader would help develop the
McDonald's branch of restaurants in Kazakhstan.
Once it appears in Kazakhstan, McDonald's is likely to face a
strong challenge from other international fast-food giants like
KFC <YUM.N> and Burger King, which have well-established
restaurant chains in the steppe nation of 17 million people.
(Reporting by Olga Sichkar; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing
by Mark Heinrich)
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