Hong Kong courts Central Asian state firms as listing pipeline grows beyond China

Hong Kong is making a deliberate play for Central Asian capital, and the early results suggest it’s working. Financial Secretary Paul Chan confirmed that several state-owned infrastructure companies from the region are planning to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, part of a broader push to reduce the city’s heavy reliance on mainland Chinese listings. The most concrete commitment so far comes from Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the country’s state-owned railway operator, which has announced plans for a Hong Kong listing and an investor roadshow both scheduled for June 2026. The Samruk-Kazyna pipeline Behind the KTZ deal sits Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, which oversees roughly $68 billion in assets. The fund has been running a privatization program that could funnel multiple portfolio companies toward international exchanges. Frederick Ma, chairman of Hong Kong’s Trade Development Council, confirmed that at least one enterprise linked to Samruk-Kazyna is expected to list on the HKEX within 2026. The diplomatic groundwork has been extensive. Chief Executive John Lee led a delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in June 2026 that produced 96 memorandums of understan...