【New Stock IPO】Kazakhstan National Railway Files for Listing; Last Year’s Profit Growth More Than Doubled

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kazakhstan’s national transport and logistics operator, has filed a listing application with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with CICC as the sole sponsor.

According to the preliminary prospectus, the company is one of the important land transport corridors connecting Kazakhstan’s production centers with China, Central Asia, Russia, the Caspian region, and Europe. It covers all 17 regions of Kazakhstan, with a railway network stretching approximately 16,000 kilometers. Among Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Baltic countries with a gauge of 1,520 millimeters, it ranks third.

The company is wholly owned by Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. In 2025, its freight turnover was 288.8 billion tonne-kilometers, representing an annual increase of 10.36%.

As of the end of December 2025, full-year profit was 343.646 billion tenge, up 1.14 times year-on-year. Revenue was 2.75 trillion tenge, up 27.41% year-on-year. Among them, freight revenue increased 31.33% year-on-year to 246 billion tenge, accounting for 89.3% of the total amount of comprehensive income and other gains. Passenger revenue increased 16.94% year-on-year to 129.25 billion tenge, with revenue contribution of approximately 4.7%. Gross profit margin was 30.2%, up 5.1 percentage points year-on-year.

The proceeds from this fundraise will be used for railway digital infrastructure construction; the construction of new railway lines; repaying the principal and accrued interest of certain interest-bearing borrowings of the group; and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Private meeting in Hong Kong in May—laying groundwork for the listing early

Notably, Nurlan Zhakupov, CEO of Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, when visiting Hong Kong in May, had already met with the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, 00388) team, including Bonnie Chan, CEO of HKEX; Xu Jingwei, Head of Global Listing Services; Zhang Shuming, Head of Global Listing Services for Asia; and others. During the meeting, both sides clearly stated that HKEX has been listed as one of the potential international listing venues for the company’s future initial public offering (IPO), for Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC (KAZAKHSTAN TEMIR ZHOLY JSC, KTZ).

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