Kazakhstan's new foreign investment hub the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) has asked the government for exclusive rights to public offerings of some of the country's most prized assets due to be sold later this year. The Central Asian nation plans to float its flagship carrier, Air Astana, former monopoly Kazakhtelecom and the world's biggest uranium miner Kazatomprom in 2018.
Large Kazakh companies, both state-owned and private, have usually listed both abroad, where they raised most cash, and at home. However the new bourse, in which the Shanghai Stock Exchange holds a 25 percent stake, has bold ambitions to make Astana a new hub.
"It is crucial to us that the initial public offerings are done on the AIFC platform because this is the only, historic chance for the Kazakh stock market to really start attracting liquidity," AIFC governor Kairat Kelimbetov told Reuters. Dual listings, he said, end up shifting liquidity from the smaller market towards the bigger one.
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