Founder of Freedom Holding Corp. acquires Karaganda Airport

Timur Turlov, the founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., has acquired a majority stake in Sky Service, a parent company for the Sary Arka airport in Karaganda. As a result of the deal, Turlov Private Holding controls a 60% stake in the airport.

The deal was signed in May with no details available to the public. According to eGov.kz, there are three major shareholders in Sky Service: Turlov Private Holding, Yerlan Ospanov (former CEO of Verny Capital controlled by Bulat Utemuratov) and Aidan Akanov (the current CEO of Verny Capital). Ospanov and Akanov used to own 95% and 5%, respectively. After the deal, Ospanov’s share slipped to 35%.

These two purchased their stakes at the end of last year. Previously, the airport belonged to Utemuratov (40%), Rustem Bekturov, deputy head of KazMunayGas Trading House and Alzhan Imashev, former deputy head of KTZ Freight Transportation.

Turlov Private Holding has been operating within the jurisdiction of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) since 2021. Apart from Turlov himself, there is another shareholder in the company – Olga Baskakova. The core activity of the company is investing its own funds. For instance, among its assets are Central Asia Corp. and Central Asia Gold Production (producers of precious and rare metals), Ai Karaaul (a copper producer) and SemeyCement.

On May 29, Sky Service announced it would offer the market its bonds in the amount of $23 million. Freedom Finance Global (operating under the brand of Freedom Broker and providing access to AIX and foreign exchanges) is going to buy the bonds for $11.5 million and act as a nominee holder. The second half of the bonds will be bought by Callabro, a company controlled by Yeldar Tuyakov.