Lion Finance Group, the parent company of Bank of Georgia, hasn’t approached Kazakhstan’s regulator about acquiring a local bank, Madina Abylkassymova, chair of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, told Kursiv.media.
«The agency has not received any application from the company, and at present we have no information about which banks they are negotiating with. So, potentially, they may be holding talks with some banks, but we have no information about this,» Abylkassymova said.
Earlier, Lion Finance Group CEO Archil Gachechiladze spoke about plans to expand into Central Asia in an interview with Bloomberg.
The group is considering acquiring large financial players in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as in the Baltics and the Balkans. It is targeting financial institutions that rank among the top three, or at least the top five, in their respective countries, with the aim of expnding its digital ecosystem.
The top five Kazakhstani banks by assets as of Aug. 1 are as follows:
- Halyk Bank has 21.5 trillion tenge (approx. $46.6 billion) in assets and a 13.5 trillion tenge ($29.7 billion) loan portfolio. The holding company Almex controls 62% of the bank’s shares.
- Kaspi Bank has 10.5 trillion tenge ($23.1 billion) in assets and an 8.1 trillion tenge ($17.8 billion) loan portfolio. The bank is controlled by businessmen Vyacheslav Kim (23.04%), Mikheil Lomtadze (20.06%) and funds of the Baring Group (19.01%).
- Bank CenterCredit has 9 trillion tenge ($19.8 billion) in assets and a 5 trillion tenge ($11 billion) loan portfolio. It is controlled by Kazakh millionaire Bakhytbek Baiseitov (51.76%). Another 11.92% is owned by Vladislav Lee.
- Otbasy Bank has 6.1 trillion tenge ($13.4 billion) in assets and a 4.6 trillion tenge ($10.1 billion) loan portfolio. The government owns the bank through Baiterek Holding.
- ForteBank has 5.5 trillion tenge ($12.1 billion) in assets and 3 trillion tenge ($6.6 billion) in loans. The bank’s majority shareholder is Bulat Utemuratov (91.43%). In September 2025, the bank was already linked to a possible sale to Hungary’s OTP Group.
In recent years, Bank of Georgia has joined the FTSE 100 index, with a market capitalization of approximately $7.9 billion. Over the past five years, the company’s shares have soared 740%, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index has gained 210%.
