Investigation: Is Shakhmurat Mutalip Kazakhstan’s New Chosen One?

Features | Economy | Central Asia

The 35-year-old is building an empire spanning railways, energy and mining. Most Kazakhs have never heard of him.

Photo posted on Kyzaibayev’s public profile on VKontakte. Darkhan Kyzaibayev (far left), Kudrat Shamiev (next left) and Shakmurat Mutalip (far right) have been together from their school days in Kazcik

A photo posted in 2013 on the Russian social media site VKontakte shows a group of young men posing together at the top of a staircase. It is unclear when the image was taken, but it is geotagged to Askar Tokpanov, better known as Kazcik, a village outside Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.

More than a decade later, at least three of the former schoolmates in the photo are involved in a network of companies handling contracts worth billions of dollars from state entities, and two now lead national sports federations. To believe local and foreign press reports, one of them is taking over Kazakhstan’s economy on a month-by-month basis.

Shakhmurat Mutalip, on the far right of the photo, is well known in Kazcik but not to the wider Kazakh public, despite his role leading the national boxing federation. Even within the business community of Central Asia’s richest economy, he is less recognized than the all-conquering company he owns, Integra Construction KZ.

But if ongoing talks behind closed doors break in his favor, the 35-year-old could soon control all or part of several major Kazakh mining companies, positioning him at the center of global supply chains for critical minerals, long-term purchase agreements with Western firms, and complicated credit relationships with sanctioned Russian banks.

Screenshot of Financial Times article on Mutalip’s bid for ERG.

If that prospect is giving international observers pause, there is little sign of hesitation in Kazakhstan.

Last year, another company linked to Mutalip won a contract with Chinese investors to build a $6 billion power plant in the north of the country. Its subsidiary is reportedly overseeing construction of a gas processing facility at the supergiant Kashagan oil field.

And Integra is towering over the rail industry at a time when the network is undergoing its largest modernization since independence, with Kazakhstan at the heart of huge connectivity projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the multi-country Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor.

But before Integra, there is little to suggest that Mutalip was a high-net-worth individual or the owner of any significant company. What’s more, his acquisition of Integra took place in highly unusual circumstances and may have involved less than $100,000 of his own money.

So, what does his near-overnight rise say about the “Just, Strong and Prosperous Kazakhstan” proclaimed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev?

And who is Shakhmurat Mutalip, really?

Photo of Shakhmurat Mutalip from an official biography.

The Right Side of the Tracks

Born in 1990, Mutalip was raised by his mother and grandmother and attended School No. 6 in Kazcik, a village west of Almaty’s airport.

Two teachers at the school told The Diplomat he was the only student in his cohort and the three preceding years to receive the state-awarded Altyn Belgi medal for excellence.

His close friend, Darkhan Kyzaibayev (far left in the photo), now his deputy at the boxing federation, nearly matched the achievement.

Together they were part of a celebrated graduating class that also included Kudrat Shamiev (second from left in the top photo), now Integra’s supervisory board chairman and the head of the national taekwondo federation, and Zhankosh Turarov, a famous professional boxer.

Darkhan Kyzaibayev is club president of FC Ordabasy, a club Shakhmurat Mutalip reportedly purchased this year. Photo from FC Ordabasy’s website.

In 2018, after the group had made their first money in business, they refurbished the school library. Now they are returning to build a sports facility, the teachers said.

Media coverage has framed Mutalip’s rise as part of a broader shift from “Old Kazakhstan,” dominated by figures linked to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to a “New Kazakhstan” under Tokayev, widely seen as accelerating after the bloody, regime-rattling unrest of January 2022.

In November, Bloomberg described Mutalip’s purported bid for a mining company, Kazzinc, as part of a trend wherein “construction tycoons” are shifting into mining, “underlining how new money is edging out interests connected to the country’s previous president.”

But the available evidence raises doubts over whether Mutalip could have been described as either a “tycoon,” or “new money,” until very recently.

In addition to a majority stake in Kazzinc, Mutalip is reportedly angling for a minority stake in Eurasian Resources Group (ERG). Together, the companies produce zinc, gold, lead, copper, ferrochrome, and a range of critical minerals at the center of the global scramble to secure supply chains.

The proposed deal for Kazzinc, currently controlled by Glencore, has been valued at $4 billion and over in press reports.

During an interview with journalist Vadim Boreiko’s popular YouTube channel, Giperborey, former prime minister-turned government critic Akezhan Kazhegeldin questioned how “a boy from Integra who couldn’t tell zinc from silver” could be involved in such talks.

Bloomberg reported on Mutalip’s acquisition of Altynalmas for an undisclosed fee in March 2026.

Discussions around a potential stake in ERG, which is 40 percent owned by the Kazakh state, have reportedly exceeded $1 billion, though it remains unclear how either deal would be financed. ERG itself carries debt to sanctioned Russian banks, reportedly serviced under a U.S. OFAC exemption.

While talks around ERG and Kazzinc have drawn international attention, Mutalip’s company, Central Asia Resources Holding Ltd, in March announced the acquisition of another major mining company, Altynalmas, with little prior reporting. In 2024, Altynalmas produced nearly 16 tonnes of gold ahead of record prices last year.

In February the company held a press tour of one of Kazakhstan’s largest gold mills, which it said had been completed recently, with $266 million in investments. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. Central Asia Resources Holding Ltd was contacted for comment.

Changing of the Guard?

Mutalip assumed ownership of Integra Construction KZ at a time when he was chairman of its supervisory board and while the company’s owner – Orifdzhan Shadiev – was under pressure from creditors and liquidators.

Unlike Mutalip, Shadiev is a long-established figure in Kazakhstan’s business elite, often appearing in local Forbes lists that have so far ignored the former.

Orifdzhan Shadiev. Screenshot taken from Kaztag.kz

His uncle, Patokh Chodiev, an Uzbekistan-born Belgian national and former Soviet diplomat, founded Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (now ERG) with his now deceased partners Alexander Mashkevitch and Alijan Ibragimov.

The “troika,” as they came to be known, are symbols of the country’s first post-Soviet business elite.

Integra originated as a track repair subsidiary of the state rail company, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, before passing into Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation – then FTSE-listed – only to be sold by the group in 2012 to Shadiev.

Mutalip acquired Integra in a series of transactions beginning in 2021 that were later challenged in court as sham arrangements designed to shield Shadiev’s assets.

At the center of the activity was a company called Altynstroy, which acquired 100 percent of Integra in April 2021, when Mutalip was the company’s CEO. By June, he had become chairman of the supervisory board and a co-owner of Altynstroy.

On September 9, 2022, Mutalip became Integra’s sole owner, acquiring 99.9 percent for more than 770 million tenge via his company Management & Construction Ltd and the remaining 0.1 percent personally.

The total price equated to around $1.6 million – a fraction of the company’s apparent value and well below the 4.5 billion tenge it paid in taxes (around $14 million) that year.

Furthermore, court documents seen by The Diplomat indicate that Management & Construction received a loan of exactly the same amount that it paid for Integra six months after the transaction. That loan came from a company, A.E.C.-Standard, that was linked to Integra through management personnel.

A.E.C.-Standard subsequently requested a repayment from Management & Construction of just 5 percent of the loan, effectively writing off the remainder.

According to his official biography, Kudrat Shamiev (right) began working at Integra earlier than Mutalip, in 2015. Photo from social media.

Kazakhstan’s central bank challenged the legality of the transaction, winning a ruling in 2023 declaring it invalid. That decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2024. The central bank by that point had dropped claims on Shadiev’s physical assets and did not object to the ruling.

Shadiev was convicted in July 2023 over a collateral substitution scheme unrelated to Integra but did not serve extended jail time. He is still battling the central bank over outstanding penalties in relation to his collapsed banking business.

In the time elapsed, Integra has gone stratospheric.

In 2024, Integra’s turnover was estimated by media at nearly 419 billion tenge, or close to $900 million, double its figure for 2023.

In 2025, according to the public records portal Adata.kz, the company had government contracts worth close to $4 billion, with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy accounting for most of the value.

That outsized figure seemingly does not include other super-lucrative projects like the power plant in northern Kazakhstan, or the gas processing plant in Kashagan, which were awarded to legally separate vehicles tied to the same beneficiary – Mutalip.

Curiously, Mutalip is not even the first person that some commentators associate with Integra.

In two interviews last year, outspoken businessman Kairat Reimov linked the company to a man called Gadzhi Gadzhiev instead. Independent and opposition media have portrayed Gadzhiev as a rapacious informal powerbroker straddling Kazakhstan’s border with China, a view Reimov echoed.

These claims remain unproven, and there is no evidence Gadzhiev has faced investigation by Kazakh authorities for any crime.

The Diplomat wrote to the Weightlifting Federation, which he heads, for comment.

Gadzhi Gadzhiev, head of Kazakhstan’s weightlifting federation. Screenshot taken from the website of the Weightlifting Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

According to his biography on the federation’s website, Gadzhiev served as Integra’s managing director from 2015 to 2017, the year it was rebranded from Zhol Zhondeushi to Integra.

Mutalip arrived at the company in a similar managerial capacity in 2020.

Such rumors regarding Integra are common, and indicative of perceptions of the company. Several businessmen and analysts who spoke to The Diplomat on condition of anonymity mentioned the name of a Nazarbayev-era official, who was characterized as the driving force behind Integra back when it was still one of a cluster of businesses formally controlled by Shadiev.

The Diplomat approached Gadzhiev and Integra for comment.

That Shadiev cluster included companies like Todini Costruzioni Generali S.p.A, a company with post-war Italian roots and projects outside Kazakhstan, and Aktobe Rail and Section Works LLP, a major manufacturer or rails.

Screenshot from the website of Todini Costruzioni Generali S.p.A.

Corporate records seen by The Diplomat show that Kyzaibayev, Shamiev and Almas Ashirbekov – Shamiev’s deputy at the taekwondo federation – are all listed as directors of Todini.

Shadiev acquired Todini in 2016 from Salini Impregilo (now Webuild) for around 50 million euro. In 2021, he divested, just as he did with Integra.

Records show that from June 2021 to September 2024 Mutalip held a minority stake in Todini through Altynstroy, the same vehicle that briefly owned Integra. Mutalip then exited Altynstroy to be replaced by a Swiss company, Pembal Holdings, with opaque ownership.

During this overlap, according to Todini’s consolidated financial statements for the year 2022, Todini secured a subcontract from Integra worth 16 billion tenge, or around $34 million, to work on the Dostyk–Moiynty rail line.

Beginning at the Kazakh-Chinese border and running roughly 800 kilometers into the interior, the Dostyk-Moiynty line is a key east-west route.

Rails for the project were produced by Aktobe Rail and Section Works LLP, where Kyzaibayev’s bio states that he was chairman of the supervisory board from December 2023 to May 2025. That company, previously owned by Orifdzhan Shadiev ’s father, Kabol Shadiev, contracts directly with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy.

Since January 2024, it has been co-owned by Abdulbari Hamidhan, linked to a Istanbul-headquartered logistics business, and Darkhan Yestiyar, who describes himself as Integra’s managing director for legal affairs.

An email in Yestiyar’s name is listed as the contact for Central Asia Resources Holding Ltd, the vehicle used in Mutalip’s acquisition of Altynalmas.

Within a month of Yestiyar becoming co-owner — via entities registered in Cyprus and the Netherlands — Aktobe Rail and Section Works secured an eight-year contract with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy worth around $750 million to produce over 650,000 tonnes of rail, with a 50 percent upfront allocation, contract documentation on Adata.kz shows.

Earlier, under the Shadievs, the company relied on external financing.

An independent audit signed off in June 2021 shows outstanding liabilities at the time of $125 million to Miramonte Investments Ltd, a Cypriot vehicle owned by Alisher Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek billionaire, via Windfel Properties Ltd. Both Usmanov and the Cypriot vehicle were sanctioned the following year in connection with Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Diplomat contacted Yestiyar and Hamidhan to find out if the company still had any exposure to Usmanov, but received no response prior to publication.

Integra’s state contracts. Source Adata.kz public records portal.

Mutalip’s biography on the Integra website states that he began his working life in his home village of Kazcik at Bent LLP, another company embedded in the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy network. According to his teachers, it was his admiring school director who intervened to get him the job in 2008.

From there he rose from an 18-year-old fitter of concrete railway sleepers to the company’s first vice president by 2015, all while completing a dual degree and a Master’s at Turan University in Almaty. A decade on, he sits at the center of a network of companies spanning rail, construction, mining and eying several new sectors.

But how much of his story was built on paper, and how much in steel?

The Diplomat approached Shakmurat Mutalip and Orifdzhan Shadiev for comment.

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