UK, Kazakh firms sign $5 billion in deals, agreements

ALMATY (Reuters) - British and Kazakh companies signed deals and agreements worth $5 billion (£3.24 billion) on Tuesday during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's visit to London, his office said.

The biggest agreement, announced separately by Britain's Independent Power Corporation (IPC), was a memorandum of understanding with Kazakh state firm Kaztransgas on projects worth $3.1 billion to build a 1,500-kilometre gas pipeline and four power plants in the Central Asian nation.

IPC said the closely linked projects aimed to provide power for the Kazakh capital Astana as well as three other cities, Karaganda, Zhezkazgan and Temirtau.

Other deals signed on Tuesday covered sectors such as petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, Nazarbayev's office said in a statement, without elaborating.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Adrian Croft)