As previously reported by Spot, the State Asset Management Agency has agreed to sell 100% of the shares of the National Interbank Processing Center, which operates the Humo payment service. Among the three contenders, Paynet emerged as the winner with a bid of $65 million.
The deal with Paynet for the privatization of Humo was finalized on December 25, 2024, but the agency officially announced it nearly three weeks later, on January 13, according to the Unified Corporate Information Portal.
On November 1, 2024, during an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, Paynet unanimously decided to purchase 100% of the state stake in the NIPC. The executive body was also authorized to conclude a sales contract for Humo with a maximum value of $65 million at the Central Bank's exchange rate on the payment day. The deadline for submitting the binding offer is November 15.
The shareholders instructed the executive body to make a deposit of 15 billion sums, send a proposal to the State Asset Management Agency for acquiring the state stake in the NIPC for $65 million, sign the sales contract, and transfer the funds "in accordance with the terms and within the timeframe established by the contract." However, neither party clarified the payment terms and scheme.
The transaction value amounted to 840.3 billion sums ($65 million), which is more than three times the size of Paynet's net assets (261 billion sums).
Additionally, on January 15, Paynet updated its list of affiliated entities by adding NIPC, the operator of the Humo payment system.
On Monday, Paynet reaffirmed its commitment to "the principles of fair competition, collaboration to develop national payment systems, and the implementation of advanced financial and digital technologies for the accelerated introduction of new payment forms and methods to stimulate the growth of the digital economy and entrepreneurship."
The CEO of the company, Anvar Isamukhamedov, stated that as a result of improving business processes, expanding the range of products and services, and implementing new technologies, Paynet and Humo will be able to provide "higher quality, accessible, and innovative solutions" for the population and businesses in Uzbekistan.
The Paynet payment service, established by Botir Arifdzhanov in 2005, was later sold to the state-owned People's Bank. In the fall of 2023, the company was privatized, but changes in the founders were only noted in the spring of 2024.
The new owner became the firm New Industrial Technologies, in which 40% belonged to the majority shareholder of Asia Alliance Bank, Mustafa Abdurakhmanov. In May, Paynet was transformed into a joint-stock company, in accordance with the Central Bank's requirements for payment services.
History of Humo
The National Interbank Processing Center was established in 2018, and in the spring of the following year, it launched the Humo payment system. In 2021, it entered into a partnership with Uzcard and began integrating infrastructure.
Since the summer of 2023, 6,400 Humo ATMs accept Uzcard bank cards on a reciprocal basis. Work is currently underway to integrate payment terminals, which has already reached the public testing stage.
In May of this year, the NIPC underwent reorganization as a joint-stock company and placed 155,448,748 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 1,000 sums. Prior to that, in April, Shavkat Mirziyoyev approved a privatization program that includes the sale of the state stake in Humo.
The Kazakh fintech group Kaspi expressed interest in acquiring Humo. Its co-founder, Mikhail Lomtadze, mentioned plans to develop the business model and enhance it with expertise in payment technologies. However, in November, Kaspi withdrew from the privatization process.
According to estimates from experts surveyed by Spot, the minimum value of Humo ranges from $60 to $80 million. The head of the State Asset Management Agency, Akmalkhon Ortikov, noted that the estimates are "very close to the truth."
Earlier, Spot reported that Uzbekistan and the UAE had agreed to establish a large data center in Tashkent.