Biography of Timur Turlov

In 2008, Turlov founded Freedom Finance, a stock brokerage firm specialising in facilitating access to US exchanges. In 2012, he launched the brokerage company in Kazakhstan and developed it into a successful business. Subsequently, he expanded the business to include a bank, an online stock brokerage, and a European stock brokerage. In 2019, all the companies were consolidated into a holding company named Freedom Holding Corp.

In October of 2019, the shares of Freedom Holding Corp. were listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol FRHC. The company was the first financial organisation from the CIS to be listed on this exchange and in doing so, its financial reporting activities became regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At the time of its Nasdaq listing, the company’s shares were valued at less than $15. By July 2024, the share price had risen to above $80.

Driven in large part by his ownership stake in Freedom Holding Corp., in 2021, Turlov was included on the Forbes global list for the first time, ranking 1517th with a net worth of $2.1 billion. By May 2024, the businessman’s fortune had grown to an estimated $3.3 billion, placing him 991st on the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people.

Freedom Holding Corp. has now grown into an international diversified financial services company with representative offices in 22 countries and a fully-fledged financial and banking ecosystem in Kazakhstan:

Freedom Bank (formerly Kassa Nova Bank) has unique products — digital mortgage and lending services, online lending for businesses, and its own Freedom SuperApp. In certain regions of the company’s operations, the SuperApp combines many of the services available in the Freedom digital ecosystem, and allows clients to manage their finances, buy insurance, obtain loans, receive various documents, and even buy their own airline tickets.

Tradernet is a proprietary trading platform that connects multiple Freedom brokers across diverse jurisdictions. It is available in 16 languages and leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate issuer descriptions, competitor comparisons, and news evaluation.

Freedom Pay is an international e-payment service for companies operating in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. It provides customers with convenient and reliable payment solutions that help increase sales and improve the customer experience.

Freedom Life and Freedom Insurance are the insurance companies that allow customers to buy insurance online. Freedom Life has almost one million customers with endowment life insurance being one of its most popular products. Freedom Finance Insurance is developing an online payment system DTP.kz, which will revolutionise the way customers pay for car insurance by using an insurance scoring system. It has over 150,000 unique customers and Turlov is the chairman of the board of directors of both insurance businesses.

Freedom Telecom is an innovative telecommunications operator that develops a range of services, including broadband internet access and 5G mobile communications. By the end of 2024, it will have laid more than 300,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable. The telecom company has now received approval from the industry regulator to use WiFi 6E/7 indoor technology and has also made it possible to use the internet on airplanes in Kazakhstan thanks to air-to-ground (A2G) technology.

In 2024, Freedom Media Platform, a subsidiary of Freedom Telecom, will develop streaming services and create its own content.

The lifestyle and retail segment of Freedom Holding Corp. offers a range of services. It includes the Arbuz.kz online supermarket with its online sales system, the Aviata air and rail ticket aggregator, Freedom Mobile, which is a network for selling smartphones and other devices, and Freedom Drive, an online shop offering goods and services for drivers. This segment also includes Ticketon, a digital platform for event and entertainment ticket management.

Some 5 million people use Freedom ecosystem services and products.

Freedom Holding Corp.’s global development

The market capitalisation of Freedom Holding Corp. on NASDAQ is approaching $5 billion with Turlov owning a stake of approximately 71%, according to the published accounts for 2024 fiscal year (from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024). The enterprise has a presence in 22 countries, including the USA, Kazakhstan, Germany, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Cyprus, Greece, the UK, among others.

The investment research firm Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) has included FRHC in its MSCI U.S. Small Cap 1750 and MSCI U.S. Investable Market 2500 indices.

Freedom Holding Corp. has a long-term credit rating of ‘B-’ from S&P Global Ratings, and its subsidiaries have a rating of ‘B’ and its outlook is positive.

EUROPE

In 2021, Cyprus-based Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., received direct membership in Euroclear, the leading international central securities depository. At the beginning of 2024, the company opened representative offices in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy and the Netherlands, and it serves clients throughout the EU. The number of accounts exceeds 200,000.

The USA

In 2020, Freedom Holding Corp. acquired Prime Executions Inc., a US broker-dealer company registered with the SEC and a member of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), as well as NASDAQ, FINRA and SIPC. This transaction enabled Freedom to establish a direct presence on U.S. stock exchanges.

In January 2022, Prime Executions received authorisation from US regulator FINRA, to engage in capital markets activities, and to operate in the field of investment banking and underwriting. In 2023, the Freedom Capital Markets division started acting as an organiser of IPOs and secondary public offerings for a diversified client base of companies.

In March 2023, Freedom Holding Corp. finalised the acquisition of LD Micro, a US-based investor conferencing platform for small-cap companies.

The company is currently exploring the possibility of entering the markets of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan.

Since January 2023, Turlov has served as President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, applying his expertise in investment and management to drive the organisation’s growth and success. In recognition of his achievements in 2023, he was named “Best President of an Accredited Sports Federation.”

In 2023 he was also one of the people behind the launch of the “QJ League,” the youth football league project in Kazakhstan. Turlov is a chairman of the League’s board of trustees and a member of the executive committee of the Kazakhstan Football Federation.

Freedom collaborates with the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) in Kazakhstan. In 2023, Timur Turlov and Freedom Holding Corp. in partnership with USAID, supported the IFAS project to pilot plant 150 hectares of black saxaul trees to restore the Aral Sea ecosystem. In support of this, in February of 2024, Freedom announced the launch of the “AraldySaqta” payment bank card that offers enhanced cashback and the opportunity to automatically transfer the cashback offer as a donation to the Fund.

Turlov is also a founder of the QALAM multimedia project — a historical and educational online platform providing broad access to the history of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

From an ESG perspective, Freedom Holding Corp. released its first sustainability report at the end of 2023. The company is committed to ESG principles, including environmental responsibility, fair treatment of employees and customers, transparency in operations, and supporting charitable initiatives.

The Freedom Shapagat Corporate Foundation was established in August 2023 to centralise the company’s charitable and sponsorship activities related to the promotion of sustainable development.
In the spring of 2024, Timur Turlov and the Foundation launched an environmental project — a network of innovative devices for collecting plastic bottles and aluminum cans for recycling. The project will be implemented in the cities of Almaty and Astana.

In May 2024 Timur Turlov was appointed Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the UN Global Compact in Central Asia. The Committee was established to effectively address transborder issues related to water, environment, hunger and poverty, infrastructure, energy and food security.

Timur Turlov is married with six children and lives in Almaty with his family. In his free time, he enjoys playing chess with his children, reading fiction, hiking, and cycling.