"Microcredit Company “Entrepreneurship Development Fund” OJSC, 100% shares of which belong to the Ministry of Finance, on November 19 this year successfully passed the listing on the “Kyrgyz Stock Exchange - BTS” CJSC. By the decision of the Listing Committee, the company's shares were included in the Official List of the Exchange under “C” category - the starting category for issuers.

It is interesting that since 2015 the shares of the Entrepreneurship Development Fund have already been listed on the Kyrgyz Stock Exchange (KSE) in a similar category. However, for almost a decade their status has not changed, despite their compliance with a number of criteria of the higher “B” category, known as the category of “blue chips”.

Kyrgyz Stock Exchange informed “Akchabar” that at the initial listing of the shares of the Entrepreneurship Development Fund considered their classification into “C” category due to the insufficient amount of capital required for inclusion in higher categories (for “C” category  the minimum requirement is 10 million KGS).

At present, due to the additional issue of shares, the Fund's indicators meet the requirements of the next category. In this regard, the Exchange plans to recommend the issuer to move to “B” category.

What are the requirements in “B” category and have all of them been met by the Entrepreneurship Development Fund in order to increase the listing category of its shares?

The first requirement of the “B” category - equity capital should be not less than 50 million KGS. As of October 1, "Microcredit Company Entrepreneurship Development Fund" OJSC has more than one billion KGS (1 billion 86.1 million KGS).

The second requirement is that the issuer should undergo initial state registration as a legal entity not less than 3 years ago. The Fund was listed on the KSE in 2015, i.e. it is almost 10 years old. 

The third requirement - the issuer should have net profit for the last reporting year or the sum of the last three years. As of October 1, net profit of OJSC, according to the statements submitted to KSE, amounted to 47 mln 205.9 thousand KGS. And during the year, since January 2024 it increased from 25 mln 47.1 thousand KGS.

The fourth requirement is that the issuer must form a board of directors, which must include independent members. Moreover, the number of independent directors should be at least 30% of the total number of board members.

It is this criterion that probably remains unfulfilled.  The Board of Directors of the Fund consists of three members, the Chairman of the Board - Kambarbek Moldobekov, and two members of the BoD - Marlen Amandykov and Abai Atakulov. There is no information about independent directors on the Fund's website. Perhaps, non-compliance with this very requirement prevents the company from moving to a new league.

Despite the issues with corporate governance, the Fund demonstrates business activity. From January to October 2024, the company provided microcredits to businesses for 448 million 191.2 thousand KGS, and the total volume of loans issued as of October 1 exceeded 1.1 billion KGS. The authorized capital during this time was increased by 416.8 million KGS to 1.08 billion KGS, while liabilities were reduced to 91.3 million KGS (-6.3 million KGS).