Uzbekistan national investment fund lists in London after $604m IPO
Uzbekistan’s national investment fund has completed the country’s first ever public market debut, raising hundreds of millions of pounds at a valuation of £1.5bn, in London’s first major IPO of 2026.
In an update on Wednesday, the National Investment Fund of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Uznif) confirmed it had completed its dual listing on both the London and Tashkent stock exchanges, in its push to open up the country to private capital and “international equity investors”.
Its London shares rose after opening at $26 (£19.2), having been sold by the Ministry of Economy and Finance a fixed price of $25 a piece, according to a statement released on Wednesday. The ministry offfloaded at 31 per cent of its stake in the fund to public investors, totalling $604m. The IPO valued the entire wealth fund at $1.95bn.
Managed by investment juggernaut Franklin Templeton, Uznif was established in 2024 and holds stakes of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent in 13 of Uzbekistan’s state-owned companies, ranging from utilities to telecommunications.
Its largest holding, Uzbekistan Airways, is also slated to pursue its own IPO in the coming years, among others in the portfolio.
The country’s national miner, Navoi Mining & Metallurgical Co, is also expected to announce a bumper London listing this year, though it is not part of the sovereign wealth fund.
Move to market-led
The IPO is part of the nation’s wider plan to move towards becoming a market-led economy, after a presidential decrease last year outlining several-state backed companies in the Central Asian economy were gearing up for public market debuts.
Other candidates include e-commerce platform Uzum, and Uzbek logistics firm Centrum.
Roughly three per cent of the Uznif deal was allocated to the Tashkent offering, with shares sold in the Uzbekistan capital at 4.6 soum each. A five per discount was offered to retail investors.
Blackrock, Franklin Resources, Red Wheel and the Allan & Gill Gray Foundation acted as cornerstone investors, agreeing to buy around $300m of Uznif shares.
Opportunities for Uzbekistan
Marius Dan, chief executive of Central Asia, Templeton Global Investments, hailed the IPO as a “defining moment” for Uzbekistan and “the development of its capital markets”.
He said: “As the first international public equity transaction from Uzbekistan, it is expected to open further investment opportunities in the country for international and domestic investors by encouraging other companies in the country to access public capital markets, in addition to the IPOs planned for certain of UzNIF’s portfolio companies.”