Alina Aldambergen, head of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) shared her vision on whether the current situation on the stock market in Kazakhstan is suitable for initial public offering (IPO) by big companies in Kazakhstan. At a press briefing, she told journalists that almost all global markets report positive news and the pent-up demand is still in place all over the world.
«This year we still see this special period of post-pandemic demand (pent-up demand) that is driving the growth of the global economy. Last year, some economies were affected by international sanctions and high inflation. Now we see that almost all economic sectors in the US and Europe perform quite well. On the other hand, China reports more modest growth of its economy because it has just started the process of recovery after anti-COVID measures, which were quite tough there,» she said.
According to Aldambergen, this is the right moment for going public to attract additional funds for business. There is now a lot of money in Kazakhstan and the situation is good for any IPO, she underlined.
The key global indexes show good results this year. For instance, the S&P 500 index has risen by 15.9%, NASDAQ by 32.74% and Dow Jones by 3.84%. The Kazakhstani index of KASE has also grown by 10.9%, which means that investors are interested in the market over again, the national GDP is growing and the demand for money is high, according to Aldambergen.
In January, she said that this year Air Astana would go public through an IPO and KEGOC through an SPO, while Samruk Kazyna would sell the so-called green assets of Samruk Energy. In addition, the government’s plan for privatization says that QazaqGas and Samruk Energy should go public in 2024-2025 and Kazakhstan Railways in 2025.
In 2014, Samruk Kazyna established an IPO of its subsidiary KEGOC offering investors to buy 10% of the company’s shares on KASE. Even though the IPO of Air Astana has been planned since 2011, the company still can’t do so due to a lack of consent between Samruk Kazyna and British BAE Systems, the second stakeholder of the company. However, according to Peter Foster, CEO of Air Astana, the airline may go public through an IPO this year.
In 2022, the national oil company KazMunayGas successfully completed its public offering, which broke Kazakhstan’s record in terms of attracting funds and the number of investors who took part in the IPO.
