Shares of the National Investment Fund of Uzbekistan (UzNIF) surged significantly following the launch of open trading on the domestic market.
Trading of the fund's securities kicked off on the Tashkent Stock Exchange today, May 18, at 10:00 AM. Within the first hour and a half, the share price climbed to 6 soums, marking a 37.2% jump from the retail investor offering price of 4 soums 41 tiyin.
By around 12:00 PM, UzNIF's quotes spiked further to 7.5 soums, representing a staggering increase of over 70% against the initial offering price. However, by 12:25 PM, the price adjusted down to 6 soums, maintaining a gain of roughly 36%. At the time of reporting at 2:45 PM, the stock was hovering between 5.65 and 5.7 soums, with total trading volume reaching nearly 4 billion soums across 3,768 executed trades.
Concurrently, on the London Stock Exchange—where conditional trading of the fund's Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) began on May 13—the price advanced 10% over three days, rising from $25 to $27.50. Unconditional trading of the GDRs officially commenced today with the opening of the London market.
As part of the IPO, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, acting as the sole shareholder, offered a combined total of 1.56 trillion UzNIF shares in the form of ordinary shares and GDRs. This represents 31% of the fund’s total equity capital, excluding any additional GDRs that may be issued under an over-allotment option. Each GDR represents 64,700 ordinary shares.
The total amount of capital raised reached approximately $603.6 million, excluding the extra GDRs that may be issued under the over-allotment option. If that option is fully exercised, the total proceeds could climb to $692 million, increasing the stake of shares sold to 35%.
Because all the securities were sold by the existing shareholder—the Ministry of Economy and Finance—UzNIF itself will not receive any direct proceeds from the IPO.
The offering was split into two tranches. Under the Tashkent tranche, 47.94 billion shares were allocated among domestic institutional investors, select foreign institutional investors, and retail investors who are citizens of Uzbekistan or specific eligible jurisdictions. This portion accounted for about 3% of the total offering, translating to roughly $18 million (216 billion soums). The vast majority of the acquired shares consisted of the London-traded GDRs.
This IPO has made history as the largest ever recorded in Uzbekistan. For comparison, the IPO of automaker UzAuto Motors in 2022 generated 1,383 applications totaling 56.9 billion soums, which accounted for just 29.1% of its offered shares. Similarly, Uztelecom raised 33.25 billion soums during its own public debut.
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