Freedom Telecom to acquire SilkNetCom

An owner of SilkNetCom, a Kazakhstani IT and telecommunication company, has given his preliminary consent to sell 100% of his stake in the company to Freedom Telecom, a new telecommunication company in Kazakhstan, which is also part of Freedom Holding Corp., according to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

The deal is estimated at $25.4 million. In addition, the owner of SilkNetCom has also confirmed that he will give Freedom Telecom a stake in the company’s capital worth $6.6 million as a pledge, which is equal to the current value of SilkNetCom assets, KASE noted in its statement. The pledge money is needed to ensure that the seller will deliver its liabilities to the buyer and will be in effect until late June.

According to the eGov public service, Zhanasil Taimbetov is the sole owner of SilkNetCom, LLC. However, a report for the first nine months of last year said that the sole owner of the company was A-Format-Media controlled by a Mr. Manatayev R.E. This name fully matches the name of Ruslan Manatayev, ex-deputy minister of agriculture of Kazakhstan.

SilkNetCom was established in 2017 and describes itself as a flagship provider of high-speed internet services. The company’s website also says that SilkNetCom is partnering with Transtelecom on a project that provides rural areas with access to wideband internet.

Freedom Holding Corp. announced its intentions to establish Freedom Telecom in July 2023. According to the holding’s CEO Timur Turlov, the new operator is going to focus on the development of the 5G standard and will become a core element of Freedom’s ecosystem. In late December 2023, Freedom Holding Corp. placed on the Astana Exchange five-year yield dollar bonds at 11.5% to 12% with the help of its subsidiary Freedom Finance SPC. The holding is going to allocate this money for the development of the new company.