TASHKENT/DEC. 1 2022 (The Bulletin) — — Uzbekistan’s UzAuto Motors, the largest car producer in the former Soviet Union, started selling its shares on the Tashkent Stock Exchange ahead of an international listing.
The car manufacturer, best known for producing thousands of shiny white Chevrolet cars each year, has said that it will list on an international exchange in 2023 although it hasn’t said where.
This is the third IPO by a major Uzbek company since 2018 and is also part of three “People’s IPOs” scheduled in Uzbekistan in December. Pres. Shavkat Mirizyoyev wants to open up Uzbekistan’s economy to Western investors but politically he needs to offer up small chunks of shares in Uzbek companies before they list on foreign stock exchanges.
“The company’s rapid development and many achievements in recent years have made it a reliable investment partner,” said Shavkat Umurzakov, the chairman of UzAuto.
The other two companies scheduled for IPOs on the Tashkent Stock Exchange this year and international IPOs next year are steel-maker UzMetKombint and QQB, an Uzbek bank that specialises in mortgages.
UzAuto Motors, which has its main factory in Andijan in the east of the country, is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest employers. In a statement in November, it said that it had already produced 290,000 cars this year, up 44% from 2021.
A global shortage of microchips, though, has meant that it has had to place thousands of cars into storage. It is cheaper and easier to store cars than to cut production. UzAuto also cut sales to Russia
ENDS
— This story was published in issue 530 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Dec. 4 2022
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2022