TASHKENT/DEC. 23 2022 (The Bulletin) — The Uzbek government cancelled its much-vaunted domestic IPO of car manufacturer UzAuto because of a lack of interest, scuppering its stock market development plans.
Bankers running the UzAuto IPO said that it had only attracted a fifth of its anticipated sales requests and that the IPO would be pushed back to Feb. 15.
Behruzbek Ochilov, an underwriter at Freedom Broker, blamed the timing of the IPO.
“It was just the time when the international investment banks and funds were going for a long weekend,” he told the Kursiv website. “The market is still young. It will take time for its full development.”
Even so, the cancelled UzAuto IPO will be a major embarrassment to the Uzbek government. It had thought that the IPO of the country’s biggest car producer would spur development of the Tashkent Stock Market.
Analysts have said that the government rushed the UzAuto IPO and that the impact of the botched IPO would set back its development. They said that the war in Ukraine had also hit demand from investors.
ENDS
— This story was published in issue 532 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Jan. 16 2023
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2023