CEE Equity

Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan, remains committed to an IPO as part of the Kazakh government’s privatisation programme that is intended to deepen the country’s fledgling capital markets, although the timing of the deal is yet to be determined.

The branding may be on the way out, but there are plenty of reasons to be encouraged about the potential for real progress in the next phase of the Capital Markets Union.

Equity bankers and investors are hot on Russia and a block on Wednesday night in PIK Group, the country’s largest real estate firm, served as a further example of the remarkable recovery of Russian ECM.

IPO investors have one less deal to buy this autumn after Kazakhstan fintech firm Kaspi decided against proceeding with its London listing on Monday, because of volatile markets and disagreements about valuation.

Investors are growing more comfortable with Kazakhstan following a $344m trade in Halyk Savings Bank last week, and sources are hopeful the momentum will carry on through to next year as the country’s privatisation wave continues.

Kaspi.kz, the largest payments and e-commerce company in Kazakhstan, announced on Monday that it would proceed with an IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) after filing a registration document last week.

Holding Group Almex, the investment vehicle owned by Dinara Kulibaeva and her husband Timur Kulibayev, closed books on a 10% stake in Halyk Bank on Thursday, sold via a marketed sale of global depositary receipts in London and Astana.

As IPO investors are considering the advantages of Kaspi, the Kazakh fintech and e-commerce firm seeking to list in London, its CEO, Mikheil Lomtadze, talked to GlobalCapital about the share sale and the advantages of being the Alibaba of central Asia.

Kazakhstan is becoming a prominent feature of equity capital markets, with a number of deals from the country in the market this month. Sources say that they are seeing new interest from investors who have shown little interest in Kazakh risk before now.

Globalworth Real Estate Investments, the London-listed real estate investment trust focused on commercial properties in Romania and Poland, is preparing to raise up to €276.45m of fresh equity to finance its bulging pipeline of acquisitions.

Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, has offloaded a small part of its stake in Kazatomprom, the state-owned uranium mining company, via an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday evening.

Kaspi.kz, the largest payments company in Kazakhstan, announced on Monday that it would proceed with an IPO on the London stock exchange after filing a registration document last week.