Air Astana Plans $120 Million IPO on London and Kazakhstan Exchanges

Air Astana, Central Asia's largest airline by market share, has announced its plans to raise $120 million through an initial public offering (IPO) on both the London and Kazakhstan stock exchanges. The IPO is expected to include the sale of shares currently held by BAE Systems, as well as global depositary receipts (GDRs) held by BAE Systems (Kazakhstan) and Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna (SK).

Bookbuilding for the offering, including a price range announcement, is scheduled to commence at the end of January.

If the offering proceeds, Air Astana anticipates that it will consist of a domestic and global offer of GDRs, the issuance of new shares to support its growth strategy, and the sale of existing shares and GDRs by SK and BAE.

As part of the global offering, BAE intends to grant an overallotment option for up to 15% of the global offer GDRs.

Air Astana reported total revenue of $900.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, compared to $747.2 million during the same period the previous year. Additionally, pretax profit increased from $78.0 million to $90.0 million.