Tencent-Backed Uzum Talk Attracting US Investment

What about IPO plans? Do you see any uh benefit from IPOing given the current macro environment uh in in in markets and in the geopolitical scene as well.

That's a great question and I think that's IPO is not a, um, um, like uh, um, the the final destination. It's just one of our uh stepping stones to to uh deliver on our strategy. So, uh we are not uh, we we plan to to become the first uh technological publicly traded company out of Uzbekistan. and uh based uh on that, uh we we plan to uh continue developing uh and executing our strategy.

Okay, Nikolai, let's bring it back to the region. Of course, we can't ignore the elephant in the room. We can't ignore the fact that we are in the middle of a conflict that's been dragging for months at this point. You're still bullish, I would say on Abu Dhabi on Dubai, do you see that continuing going forward with what is happening in the region?

Uh look, maybe uh on one hand side, uh, I'm obviously bullish, that's why I'm here. Um but uh to to add another layer to that, I would say that Uzbekistan and Uzum is a very good example, is attracting investments from all across the globe, becoming sort of the safe heaven uh for the international uh investments. uh just look at our cap table, we over the last uh 18 months, we've attracted investors from China, from the US and from from the Gulf. Uh so uh I do believe we are in a very good position to.

So speaking about the US, you're backed by Tencent. Does that complicate the picture when you seek investors from the United States given the tensions between China and the US?

Frankly speaking, I don't believe so. uh because again, Uzbekistan and Uzum's position uh and it it essentially creates um and brings a very good uh investment opportunity for for everyone to participate in.

Okay, let's talk about some capital raising. You have become one of the largest borrowers in Uzbekistan when it comes to bonds. Are you looking at Euro bonds at all? And if not, then why not?

Look, that's a that's a great question. Um we are scaling our unsecured lending business and as a result, we need a lot of funding uh for that. So we are in a very good situation where we need money to make money to to put it very simply. And we found uh a lot of uh demand for quality issues in uh Uzbekistan locally, in local currency. And uh we are also attracting funding from uh the Development Bank. We've very recently announced uh an increase in our credit facility with the uh Eurasian Development Bank and uh Eurobond uh will definitely be on our radar, so to say when uh the situation is right, maybe later uh this year or early next year.