Kazakh FinTech Rumored To Aim For $5B IPO Valuation

A FinTech group from Kazakhstan part-owned by Baring Vostok and Goldman Sachs is structuring a London IPO that is the largest listing by a central Asian company since the global financial crisis, the Financial Times reported Monday (Sept. 16).

Payments, finance and eCommerce marketplace startup Kaspi.kz is predicted to sell existing shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company is anticipated to reach a $5 billion valuation with an offering of at least $500 million worth of GDRs, a source told FT.

Brexit has caused uncertainty, leading some companies to hesitate when it comes to listing on the LSE. London was the choice for Kaspi.kz over New York because “investors in this part of the world are closer to Kazakhstan and understand it better,” CEO and Kaspi shareholder Mikhail Lomtadze said.

Kaspi.kz is the first London IPO by a Kazakh company since uranium producer Kazatomprom listed in November 2018.

“The markets are pretty good, capital markets are good enough, and we have fantastic growth,” Lomtadze said. “Kazakhstan itself is an extremely underpenetrated market, a growing market, innovating with new services. And in the future, we want to be a company that exports technology — to central Asia and the Caucasus.”

Net income for the company has increased 54 percent to $203 million in the first six months of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018.

“We are a big innovative company, and we are doing so much for the country, digitizing the country, so we see a lot of growth potential,” Lomtadze said. “There is a very strong correlation between GDP growth and digitization. And the country has a good macro story with annual growth of 4.1 percent over three years.”

Another recent IPO filing on the LSE is Finablr, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) payments company. Finablr supports cross-border payments and other payment services in 44 countries and has agency relationships in at least 170 countries.