Chinese IT giant Tencent became one of the largest shareholders of Kaspi.kz

Chinese IT company Tencent has become one of the largest shareholders of Kazakh fintech company Kaspi.kz, according to a release on the Kazakh group's website.

Kaspi.kz announced the sale of six million American Depositary Receipts (ADSs) that investors, including one of China's largest IT companies, Tencent, purchased from Baring Fintech Venture Funds. In addition to Tencent, the buyers include Kaspi.kz co-founder and CEO Mikhail Lomtadze, the company's top management, long-term institutional investors from the United States, fintech fund Spice Expeditions, as well as university endowments (endowment funds) of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Wisconsin. Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to the transaction.

"Tencent has pioneered the super-app ecosystem model and we have long admired its ability to combine large-scale innovation with disciplined execution. We are pleased to welcome Tencent as a major shareholder of Kaspi.kz," Lomtadze said commenting on the deal. Kaspi.kz did not disclose its financial details.

Tencent is China's largest technology conglomerate, founded in 1998. The company is best known as the creator of the WeChat super-application and the world's largest video game publisher. The company's shares added 2.35% in Hong Kong trading on April 20. They are down 12.8% since the beginning of the year.

Kaspi.kz is developing a super-application model that combines various digital services on one platform and serves more than 25 million users and 900,000 merchants in Kazakhstan and Turkey, The Astana Times reports. In Kazakhstan, the company's application includes functions of payments, online commerce, fintech services, as well as travel services, announcements and access to government services. This makes it one of the key digital tools in the daily life of users: on average, one active customer makes 77 transactions per month, the newspaper said. In Turkey, the company owns 86% of the large e-commerce platform Hepsiburada.

Kaspi.kz shares have been traded on the Nasdaq exchange since January 2024. At the pre-market on April 20 American depositary receipts (ADR) of the company jumped by 4.2%. Since the beginning of the year they have added 8.7%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor