History
The company was founded in 2008 by Timur Turlov.[9] In 2013, Freedom Finance established a subsidiary brokerage company, Freedom Finance JSC in Kazakhstan.
In 2013, the European subsidiary Freedom Finance Europe was established. In 2015, it obtained a full set of licenses from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).[10]
In 2014 the company arranged the listing of Bank of America stocks on KASE.[11]
In 2015 the Company became a market maker for stocks of the national power operator of Kazakhstan, KEGOC,[12] and in 2016 it carried out an IPO for Aktobe Metalware Plant JSC, which holds 70% of the metalwork market in Kazakhstan.[13]
In 2017 the Company acquired one of its competitors, the Kazakhstani broker Asyl-Invest.[14]
As of May 2017 the Company was a market maker for 12 securities: KEGOC, BAST, Aktobe Metalware Plant JSC, Bank of America, ETF S&P 500, along with major Russian bluechips like Aeroflot, Gazprom, Rostelecom, Magnit, Uralkali.[15]
In 2015, BMB Munai was acquired and subsequently renamed Freedom Holding Corp., which included Freedom Finance, with Timur Turlov becoming the majority shareholder of Freedom Holding Corp.[16]
In 2018, Freedom Finance entered the Uzbekistani securities market, establishing offices in 8 cities across the country. In the following year, the company has done several IPOs and SPOs for local manufacturing companies.
In October, 2019 Freedom Holding Corp. has been approved for listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the "FRHC." symbol, therefore marking company's IPO.[17] The holding's shares are also traded on Kazakhstan's stock exchanges, KASE and AIX. FRHC shares are included in the MSCI U.S. Small Cap 1750 Index, MSCI U.S. Investable Market 2500 Index and Kazakhstan's AIX Qazaq Index (with a 15% share).[18]
In June 2020 Freedom Holdings acquired the Russian stock broker and financial company Zerich Capital Management after it was approved by the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service. Freedom said it would integrate the business into its existing Russian holdings.[19] That same year the company acquired а Kazakh bank – Bank Kassa Nova JSC, the name of the bank was later changed to Freedom Bank Kazakhstan JSC.[20][21]
In 2021 Freedom Holding Corp. completed acquisition of American broker Prime Executions, Inc. The acquisition marked the company's initial entry into the U.S. markets.[22]
In 2021 Freedom Holding acquired Ticketon. In the same year Freedom Holding purchased Paybox for $11.5 million and the online supermarket Arbuz.
In 2022, the American subsidiary Freedom Capital Markets received a license to conduct underwriting activities.[23]
In 2022, the holding company changed its auditor from WSRP and started working with Deloitte a "Big Four" accounting firm.[24]
In October 2022, Freedom Holding Corp. announced withdrawal from Russia by selling its assets to the local management.[25] The company has finalised its withdrawal from Russia by February 2023.[26]
On April 24, 2023 Freedom Holding Corp. announced the acquisition of 100% shares in Aviata.kz and Chocotravel services from ChocoFamily Holding. The transaction amount is $32.3 million.[27]
In 2023, Freedom Holding Corp. completed the acquisition of LD Micro, a conference platform for small-cap companies, formerly owned by SRAX.[28]
In August 2023, Hindenburg Research released a report on Freedom Finance, which included allegations that the company was evading sanctions and compliance rules.[29] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice investigated related issues.[30] An independent review by the legal team at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and the forensic accounting experts at Forensic Risk Alliance concluded that the allegations were unfounded.[31]
In June 2024, the holding company completed a cross-listing of its securities on the AIX exchange. On October 1, 2024, Freedom Holding Corp. shares were included in the AIX Qazaq Index, representing a 15% weighting.
In 2025, Freedom Holding launched QalamBalam, a media platform for children and teenagers created on the basis of the Qalam media group.[32]
In the same year, the construction of the Freedom Cloud data center began. It is intended to establish a transit data transmission channel between Europe and China through Kazakhstan.[33]
