by
Gloria Leung
Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, a state-owned national railway and logistics company in Kazakhstan, has filed for an initial public offering on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong following Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu's visit to Kazakhstan in early June.
According to the company's preliminary prospectus, it provides a principal overland transport link connecting Kazakhstan's production centers with China, Central Asia, Russia, the Caspian Sea region and Europe, covering all 17 regions of Kazakhstan. The 16,000-km rail network ranks third in track length among the Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic Sea on the 1,520 mm gauge.
The company is wholly owned by the government through Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund. Its freight turnover rose 10.36 percent year on year to 288.8 billion tonne-kilometers in 2025.
As of the end of December last year, the company's profit surged 1.14 times to KZT 343.65 billion (HK$5.63 billion). Its revenue rose 27.41 percent to KZT 2.75 trillion.
China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities is the company's sponsor.
The company said it plans to raise funds for railway digital infrastructure, building new railways, repaying part of the principal and accrued interest of the company's interest-bearing borrowings, and working capital and general corporate purposes.
Notably, Nurlan Zhakupov, chief executive of Samruk-Kazyna, a state-owned investment holding company in Kazakhstan, met with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing's (0388) chief executive, Bonnie Chan Yi-ting, and others to discuss HKEX as a potential international listing venue for Kazakhstan Temir Zholy's future IPO.
𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓