Freedom Holding Corp. explains why Timur Turlov has quit Kcell’s board of directors

The international holding Freedom Holding Corp. has explained why its founder and key stakeholder Timur Turlov quit Kcell’s board of directors. (The mobile operator operates under the Kcell brand.)

According to the holding, Turlov’s decision was voluntary and motivated by the desire to avoid a conflict of interest as he wanted to focus on his business in mobile communications. The businessman became a member of the company’s board of directors as a representative of Freedom Finance, which owns a stake in Kcell, in 2019.

Freedom Finance bought 9.08% of Kcell’s shares two years earlier. Since then, the company increased its stake to 10.46% and then decreased it to less than 5%. By now, the biggest shareholder in Kcell is Kazakhtelecom with a 51% stake. Galimzhan Yessenov, the owner of Jusan Bank, holds 14.87% and Jusan Bank itself controls 9.08% of the company’s shares.

The bank has also owned 9% of Kazakhtelecom shares since September 2023, when they were bought from Yessenov on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). In turn, the businessman obtained them along with 14.87% of Kcell’s shares from Jusan Technologies this summer. This British company is a former owner of Jusan Bank.

At the same time, Turlov announced this summer his plan to establish and develop a «totally new» mobile operator specializing in services under the 5G standard. The new company is going to focus on rendering services to high-end clients. This will be a network with enough capacity for a small number of subscribers.