Kazakhstan’s fintech company Freedom Holding Corp., owned by Timur Turlov, is creating a brokerage business in Türkiye. Freedom Yatırım has become the first foreign player in 20 years to enter the local stock market. The owner of the holding, Timur Turlov, highly assesses the chances of success and is ready to invest up to $300 million in the Turkish direction.
Specific features of the Turkish market
Since the beginning of the year, Türkiye’s BIST 100 stock index, denominated in Turkish lira, has already risen by a quarter, and since May 2025 it has gained almost 50%. However, such dynamics are not driven by rapid economic growth, but by high inflation, which for many years has been the main factor behind the depreciation of the local currency. As a result, the value of Turkish companies’ shares in lira constantly reaches new records, but in dollar terms they barely increase. Therefore, the P/E ratio, which is around 15 points according to World PE Ratio, indicates that the local market is undervalued compared with other emerging economies. This creates favorable conditions for entering it with a long-term perspective.
Timur Turlov/Freedom
“From the moment we receive licenses in these locations [Türkiye and the UAE - ed.], we will need about a year to more or less roll out operations,” Turlov said during a meeting with journalists. “We are quite unique in this regard, because very few companies have their own infrastructure, their own development team that can connect directly to an exchange, adapt to any regulatory regime and create any new reports. We can do this quickly.”
The country’s main stock exchange is Borsa Istanbul. The total capitalization of companies whose shares are traded there exceeds half a trillion dollars. According to the exchange, the largest companies by weight in the BIST 100 include defense corporation Aselsan, around $40 billion, food retailer BİM Birleşik Mağazalar, over $10 billion, national air carrier Turkish Airlines (THYAO), almost $9 billion, and one of the country’s largest private banks, İş Bankası, around $8 billion.
In 2021-2025, the average monthly number of active investor accounts almost doubled to 2.6 million. At the end of last year, Turkish retail investors owned 30% of all shares, in monetary terms, listed on Borsa Istanbul. For citizens of the country, the stock market is one of the main tools for preserving the purchasing power of savings amid rapidly rising prices.
Thanks to the reduction of the key rate, local businesses are increasingly using the stock market as a tool for raising additional capital. Last year, 18 companies went public, raising a total of 43.9 billion lira ($1.1 billion). In 2024, IPOs were carried out by 34 issuers. Among the most notable recent listings were Pasifik Holding, which brings together 55 companies from various sectors, including development, logistics, energy and IT, and Balsu Gıda, the world’s second-largest hazelnut processor.
The country’s debt market is also growing. In 2025, local companies placed bonds worth 957 billion lira, which is 51.3% more than a year earlier, according to analysts cited by Kursiv.Media.
Freedom Holding Corp.’s ecosystem rollout in Türkiye
However, Freedom Holding Corp. is interested not only in the country’s stock market. The company recently announced the acquisition of Turkish Bank A.Ş. in Türkiye. Thus, the Kazakhstan-based holding is building a unified fintech ecosystem in the new market.
It should be recalled that two years ago in Kazakhstan, the company combined its brokerage, banking, insurance and lifestyle products into the Freedom SuperApp. This became a key driver of growth in the client base across all areas of the group, as well as in its financial performance. Before the launch of the app, in the 2024 fiscal year, Freedom Holding’s revenue amounted to $1.64 billion, and a year later it increased to $2.05 billion. Today, the holding serves more than 11 million people, and its offices operate in 21 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as in the United States.
“We have learned how to monetize trust and the client base fantastically effectively,” Turlov said in an interview with Kursiv.Media. “Previously, we spent money to attract a client to a brokerage account. Now a client comes to us for a digital mortgage or a car loan because it is fast and convenient - we do it in seconds - and then we seamlessly offer them insurance, investment products or lifestyle services.”
The company’s stable financial position and plans for global expansion have become some of the key factors influencing rating agencies’ views on Freedom Holding and its companies. Last March, Freedom Bank received its first rating from Moody’s at Ba3 with a “stable” outlook, while S&P Global Ratings affirmed the bank’s long-term and short-term credit ratings at “B+/B” and maintained “Positive” outlooks on them. At the same time, the long-term credit rating of Freedom Holding Corp. itself remained at “B-” with a “Stable” outlook. If the holding manages to replicate in Türkiye the results it has achieved in its home market of Kazakhstan, this will become a powerful growth driver for its financial performance.
