Air Astana to hire advisers for London IPO in early 2024

Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s flag carrier, is hiring advisers for a long-delayed initial public offering in London and at home, aiming for Q1 of next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. UK defense firm BAE Systems Plc and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund — the airline’s shareholders — plan to reduce their combined ownership to about 50%, and Air Astana will also sell new shares, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is not public. BAE owns 49% of Air Astana, and Samruk-Kazyna controls the remaining 51%. The company has started pitching the planned share sale to would-be investors, they said. To ensure the airline keeps its preferential status as the national carrier, the sale will be structured to keep control in the hands of Kazakh citizens or entities, the people said, without providing further details. Air Astana could potentially fetch a valuation of roughly $1b based on preliminary estimates, though that number is subject to revision, the people said. The timing of sale will depend on market conditions. The deal, if it goes ahead, would be the first sale of a state-run Kazakh company in London since the 2018 IPO of Kazatomprom, the world’s largest uranium miner. The government has long planned to offer some of its stakes in companies but postponed most of the sales amid market turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In September, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered the government to sell shares in Air Astana next year.<br/>