The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), together with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is preparing medium and large private Kazakh companies for initial public offerings. The agency announced this following a speech by its chairwoman, Madina Abylkassymova, at a roundtable in Bangkok during the IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings on October 17.
According to Abylkassymova, the country has the infrastructure and regulatory framework for a capital market, but a key constraint remains the shortage of corporate financial instruments. Companies still primarily rely on bank loans and rarely issue shares or bonds.
ARDFM is also considering measures to make bond financing more attractive for domestic issuers. For now, this is preparatory work: specific companies, placement timelines, and fundraising volumes have not been named.
Pension assets and Euroclear
Developing the capital market requires a stable base of institutional investors, the ARDFM head noted. Expanding the participation of private management companies in handling pension assets, she said, will diversify investment strategies and increase opportunities for long-term business financing. She did not specify mechanisms or timelines.
Kazakhstan has already established the main elements of market infrastructure, including a central counterparty. The next step involves international settlement links: a planned connection to Euroclear should expand foreign investors’ access to Kazakh financial instruments. Timelines have not been disclosed.
The roundtable paid special attention to government securities yields—a benchmark for borrowing costs in the domestic market. Regular issuances of long-term government bonds help set price benchmarks for corporate issuers and investors, Abylkassymova said.
One of the market’s key constraints, according to ARDFM, is not infrastructure but a shortage of corporate securities: companies still borrow from banks more often.