Kazakhstan Plans Capital Market Overhaul Through 2030 to Bring More Private Businesses to Investors

A Bigger Market With a Small Private Business Share

Kazakhstan plans to overhaul its capital market through 2030 after the combined value of its share and bond markets reached 99.8 trillion tenge in 2025, almost twice the 51.1 trillion tenge recorded in 2021. The central challenge is getting more of that investment capacity to private businesses: government securities and bonds issued by companies with state participation account for 89% of the bond market.

A Capital Market Development Program and a draft law On the Capital Market were reviewed at a government meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin. The proposed legislation would replace the Law on the Securities Market, which has been in force since 2003, and introduce stronger duties toward investors.

The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market prepared the documents with the National Bank following instructions from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The program contains seven areas and 35 strategic initiatives, covering investment funds, pension assets, bonds, derivatives and access to public share offerings.

For businesses, the aim is to make selling shares or issuing bonds a more practical way to raise money alongside bank loans. For households, the proposals would expand investment choices while changing how brokers handle orders and how companies enter the market.

Where the Growth Has Come From

Nurzhan Tursunkhanov, deputy chairperson of the financial regulator, presented figures showing share market capitalization of 41.8 trillion tenge, equivalent to 26% of gross domestic product. The bond market stood at 58 trillion tenge, or 36% of GDP. Capitalization means the combined market value of companies' shares.

The combined market increased by 48.7 trillion tenge between 2021 and 2025, a rise of about 95%. Much of that expansion came from share placements by companies with state participation and changes in the market value of issuers. An issuer is a company or public body that sells securities to investors.

The bond figures show why officials want broader participation. Government securities represent 59% of the market, companies with state participation account for another 30%, and private businesses make up 11%. In other words, about nine out of every 100 tenge of bond market value sit outside the government and companies with state participation only after adding another two tenge to reach the private sector's share of 11.

More simply, the government and companies with state participation together account for roughly eight times the private business share. The reform program seeks to give a wider range of enterprises access to investors rather than leaving most activity concentrated around public borrowers and large established companies.

Why Trading Activity Matters

Kazakhstan's share turnover ratio stands at 1.4%, against a target range of 5% to 10%. The corresponding figure for bonds is approximately 9%, compared with a target of 20% to 25%. Turnover measures trading activity relative to the size of a market.

Reaching the bottom of those ranges would require share turnover to rise to about 3.6 times its current level and bond turnover to more than double. Those comparisons show the scale of the trading expansion sought alongside growth in the number and value of securities.

Investors need buyers when they want to sell and sellers when they want to buy. A market with more regular trading can make those transactions easier. This ability to trade without a long wait or a large price change is called liquidity.

The program proposes improvements to market makers, firms that regularly quote buying and selling prices. It also calls for support for independent investment research and broader access for international investors to Kazakh shares. Research can help investors understand a company's finances, while additional participants can bring more orders into the market.

Private Companies Form a New IPO Pipeline

Regulator chairperson Madina Abilkassymova has outlined plans to select three to five large private companies with the potential to hold initial public offerings, or IPOs. Each would receive an individual preparation plan and between two and five years to get ready.

An IPO is a company's first public offering of shares. Investors buy an ownership stake, and an offering can bring new money into the business when it includes newly issued shares. Shareholders may receive dividends if the company distributes profits, while the value of their investment rises or falls with the share price.

The potential private company pipeline has an estimated combined valuation of 6.6 trillion tenge. Mining businesses account for 5.1 trillion tenge, construction companies for 764 billion tenge and trading companies for 559 billion tenge. Mining therefore represents roughly three quarters of the stated total.

Officials have not named the private companies or specified how much of their equity would be offered. Their estimated business values and the amount investors might eventually be asked to buy are separate figures: the size of an offering depends on the stake sold and its price.

Companies with state participation currently have a combined market value of 17.7 trillion tenge in the share market figures cited during the presentation. Adding private issuers from mining, construction and trade would give investors more businesses and sectors to choose from.

Rail and Gas Listings Have a Separate Timetable

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the railway company, and QazaqGaz are also scheduled for IPOs during 2026 to 2029. The plans envisage offering part of their shares to domestic investors through the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, known as KASE, and the Astana International Exchange.

The proposals include an allocation for retail investors, meaning individual people rather than financial institutions. The number of shares reserved for that group and the pricing terms would determine how widely households could participate.

The timetable combines changes to legislation with preparations inside companies:

• 2021: The combined share and bond markets were valued at 51.1 trillion tenge.
• 2025: Their combined value reached 99.8 trillion tenge.
• By the end of 2026: The draft capital market law is planned for submission to the Kurultai for legislative consideration.
• 2026 to 2029: Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and QazaqGaz are scheduled to hold IPOs.
• Through 2030: The capital market development program sets out seven areas and 35 strategic initiatives.

The private company preparation period runs for two to five years after selection. That makes company readiness an important part of the program, alongside the government's legislative timetable.

A Simpler Route for Smaller Businesses

Small and medium businesses would receive help through a proposed system of listing sponsors, drawing on experience at the London Stock Exchange. These sponsors would support companies preparing to meet exchange requirements, organize financial reporting and disclose information to investors.

For a smaller business, entering a public market involves more than finding buyers. Investors need information about its finances, operations and risks. The proposed sponsors would help businesses prepare for those requirements before and during the listing process.

A single digital entry point at the Central Securities Depository would allow companies to submit IPO documents in one place. The regulator, exchanges and depository could then review the documents in parallel. The draft law also proposes updated requirements for securities prospectuses, the documents explaining an offering and its risks.

KASE figures presented at a capital market roundtable in Almaty in 2026 illustrate the existing issuer base. Its trading system had 89 share issues from 76 issuers and 717 corporate bond issues from 158 issuers. A company can have several bond issues, each with its own borrowing terms and repayment date.

The same roundtable put the corporate bond market at more than 16 trillion tenge. The 58 trillion tenge bond total presented at the government meeting covers a broader market that also includes government securities.

What Would Change for Individual Investors?

Retail investor accounts exceeded 5 million in the first nine months of 2026, according to the figures presented by Tursunkhanov. The draft law would introduce uniform criteria for qualified investors, a regulatory category used to determine access to certain investments.

Brokers would also be required to execute client orders on the most favorable terms available. When a customer asks a broker to buy or sell, that duty would place an explicit responsibility on the broker's handling of the transaction.

The reform package also calls for developing financial and investment advisers. Together with independent research, this would expand the professional services available to people deciding where to put their savings.

Investors would still face the financial risks attached to the securities they choose. Share prices can fall, dividends depend on company decisions and finances, and bond investors depend on an issuer's ability to pay interest and return borrowed money. The proposed protections concern the rules and services surrounding those investments.

Pension assets and investment funds are also included in the program. Their inclusion extends the planned changes beyond people trading directly through brokerage accounts to institutions that manage money for longer periods.

New Trading Tools Need New Rules

The proposed law would widen regulation to cover derivatives and digital financial assets. A derivative is a contract whose value depends on something else, such as a share price, an exchange rate or an interest rate. Businesses and investors can use such contracts to manage exposure to price changes.

Securities lending and covered short selling are among the mechanisms proposed. Securities lending allows an investor to borrow securities under agreed terms. In a covered short sale, a trader borrows shares, sells them and later buys shares to return to the lender, hoping the price has fallen.

A trader loses money if the repurchase price rises instead. Bringing these activities into the legal framework would give market participants rules for transactions that involve borrowing securities and returning them later.

The package also addresses restructuring, self regulation and settlement infrastructure. Settlement is the process that completes a trade by transferring the securities to the buyer and the money to the seller. Updating that infrastructure is part of making a larger and more active market work reliably.

International Review and the Legislative Deadline

Kazakhstan wants the new law to bring its regulatory framework closer to European Union standards and those of the International Organization of Securities Commissions, or IOSCO. The planned submission deadline is the end of 2026.

Abilkassymova and Matteo Patrone, vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, discussed a possible international review of the draft. The proposed review would examine its consistency with recognized standards and whether its provisions support the capital market program. The discussion concerned arranging that assessment, with its start still to be announced.

Their meeting also covered a draft insurance market development program for 2026 to 2030. Both programs sit within a wider financial reform agenda following the banking law signed by Tokayev in January 2026.

The next concrete legislative milestone is submission of the capital market bill. For businesses and investors, the practical changes would then depend on the adopted rules, functioning market infrastructure and companies completing their preparations to issue securities.

Key Points

• Kazakhstan's combined share and bond markets grew from 51.1 trillion tenge in 2021 to 99.8 trillion tenge in 2025.
• Government securities and bonds from companies with state participation account for 89% of the bond market; private businesses account for 11%.
• The program through 2030 contains seven areas and 35 strategic initiatives.
• Three to five private companies would be selected for IPO preparation, with two to five years to get ready.
• Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and QazaqGaz are scheduled for IPOs during 2026 to 2029.
• The draft law would introduce common qualified investor criteria and require brokers to seek the most favorable available terms for client orders.
• Submission of the capital market bill for legislative consideration is planned by the end of 2026.