Focus on development
keeping a job continues to grow at double-digit rates. Thus, in the April-June 2023 period, revenue increased by 83 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 316.2 million dollars. It was noteworthy that most of this amount, namely 282.8 million dollars, came from the Central Asia Freedom segment (Uzbekistan). and Kazakhstan).
Kazakhstan is considered the company’s main market, where Freedom Holding Corp.’s CEO is based. Timur Turlov is developing a complete service ecosystem. Lately announced regarding the establishment of Freedom Telecom, a new company developing broadband Internet access and high-tech 5G mobile communications.
The revenue of the Kazakhstan segment was distributed as follows: Freedom Bank $ 115.8 million, Freedom Finance Global – $ 48.3 million, Freedom Finance JSC – $ 26.5 million, income of insurance companies – $ 69.6 million.
Overall, the Central Asia segment recorded an impressive growth of 184.6% during the reporting period.
The main driver of the holding’s revenue growth is the 207.5% increase in interest income to $149.3 million, driven by an increase in its own securities portfolio and the number of bank loans granted.
Freedom Holding Corp.’s net profit increased by 57.5% to $67.9 million during the reporting period.
Many people believed that Freedom would lose a lot from the sale of Russian assets, since Russia is one of the main markets. However, as can be seen from the reports, the holding managed to quickly rebuild and diversify its income sources.
New features in stock
The holding does not stand still and is constantly looking for new opportunities to expand not only the services it offers but also the markets in which it operates. Although Kazakhstan is still key for the company, the holding is actively developing other areas. Freedom is represented in a total of 16 countries, including the USA, Europe and the CIS, and the total number of customer accounts of the holding has reached 400 thousand.
The company’s American division is engaged in investment banking activities. In other words, it acts as the underwriter for initial public offerings (IPOs). Obtaining such a license from American regulators to conduct insurance activities is quite difficult. Freedom Holding has already conducted numerous IPOs and DPTs (secondary public offerings) of American companies this year. This is a unique achievement for a Kazakh company.
Freedom aims to further develop this area. Recent major acquisitions are proof of this: holding in February bought American investment bank Maxim Group, and in March – LDMicro a service for organizing conference calls. These acquisitions will expand the range of services offered to institutional clients and private investors.
There is no success without jealousy
It is not surprising that the rapid development of a small company by American standards attracts great attention from competitors. Recently, “black PR people” have become more active and organize real information wars.
The most recent and notable of these is the Hindenburg Inquiry investigation, which is based on statements received from anonymous sources. It would seem that the well-known “bears” of Wall Street should conduct high-quality information checks before publishing explanatory material, but in the case of Freedom Holding they were very wrong. All accusations have not been confirmed, the company’s president, Timur Turlov, said. right their failure. Also evident are the holding’s annual financial statements, audited by Big Four auditor Deloitte. As a result, according to experts, Hindenburg lost about 30 million dollars.
Another indicative information attack is a broadcast on CNBC, which often repeats the theses of the Hindenburg materials. With one powerful addition, inspections were launched against the conglomerate by American regulators. But news about the investigation into the holding’s activities seems far away. It makes sense in terms of the tide that the SEC, the United States’ main financial regulator, would respond to public accusations against a publicly traded company. This is not surprising; This is the responsibility of the regulator. What’s surprising is that CNBC also writes about US Department of Justice (DOJ) audits. However, Freedom Holding representatives said they had no information about the DOJ investigation.
But those who carefully read the CNBC material may have noticed that the article included the following note: “Such investigations can take years and do not lead to criminal or civil charges. “There have been no formal charges or allegations of misconduct so far.” Apparently the loud headline was needed to scare and further manipulate the market and once again it failed.
In general, this is not the first time that Freedom Holding has been targeted by black PR and information attacks, so the regulator periodically asks questions. The holding’s American team of lawyers actively cooperates with all regulatory authorities, and no one has filed serious charges during the holding’s operation. Yet regulators make decisions based on actual facts, not high-profile “investigations” or tip-offs.