Tencent-backed Uzbek start-up Uzum considers London listing

By Robert Harvey and Felix Light LONDON (Reuters) -Tencent-backed fintech and e-commerce provider Uzum, Uzbekistan's most valuable start-up, has added London to its list of possible locations for a stockmarket listing, co-founder Nikolay Seleznev told Reuters. Uzum, which secured $70 million in equity financing led by China's Tencent and U.S. firm VR Capital in August, is valued at $1.5 billion. That makes it the first "unicorn" start-up in Uzbekistan, which with around 37 million people is now the second most populous former Soviet state after Russia. In addition to the London option, which has not previously been reported, the bank is considering New York's Nasdaq, Abu Dhabi – where it already has a presence – and Hong Kong, where following Tencent's investment it is now receiving a lot of interest, Seleznev said in an interview in London. He said it was too early to comment on a target price for its initial public offering (IPO), planned for 2027, but said: "If we were to list on the London Stock Exchange, we would definitely be considering the FTSE 100." Uzum also received investor interest from the Middle East and Britain in its latest funding round, Seleznev said. He added that his conversations with investors had been about the potential of Uzbekistan, not only about Uzum. The Central Asian state has embarked on a programme of economic reforms under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who took power in 2016. It has attracted significant foreign investment, even as politics remains tightly controlled. Seleznev said considerations about liquidity and the available investor base, which affect stock price valuations, had made Uzum look beyond the "ideal" location of Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, for an IPO. Uzum has had a meteoric rise in Uzbekistan since its founding in 2022. It says 17 million Uzbek residents use its services every month. "I'm against doing geographical expansion too fast. We want to properly win and dominate the home market, to demonstrate to potential partners that we're capable of building a system that would outperform not only here, but somewhere else," Seleznev said. (Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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