Kim is waiting for approval from the Kazakh central bank for the deal to be completed, the spokesperson said.

The businessman emerged with his partners as an asset consolidator after the global crash of 2008 forced Western banks to downsize, buying the Russian commercial banking unit of Barclays in 2011.

In January he said he was interested in acquisitions in Russia and abroad in 2016.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Louise Heavens)