Roemer Capital (Europe) Limited was a proud sponsor of Astana Finance Days 2026, held on 9–10 September at the Astana International Financial Centre. Now in its ninth edition and themed Delivering Impact. Capital in Action, the forum is the leading capital markets gathering in the Eurasian region, bringing together brokers, bankers, asset managers, regulators and government institutions from across Central Asia and beyond. Our team hosted a stand at the AFD Exhibition across both days of the forum.

On 9 September, Roman Lokhov, Founder and Chairman of Roemer Capital (Europe) Limited, joined the panel discussion "Kazakhstan's Stock Market Amid Limited Liquidity and Regulatory Challenges: Broker's Perspective" at the AIX Trading Hall. Moderated by Zharas Mussabekov, Chief Financial Officer of AIX, the session convened senior figures from the brokerage community. The discussion covered current trends across the equity and debt markets, regulatory arbitrage between the country's two jurisdictions, expectations from forthcoming reforms, and the preferences of retail and institutional investors.

Roman Lokhov used his remarks to reframe the liquidity question. The constraint, in his view, is not that Kazakhstan lacks investable companies or trading interest — it is that the interest is being captured elsewhere.

"Kazakhstan has extraordinary champions — Halyk, Kazatomprom, Kaspi. The liquidity is there. The whole problem is that it is not in Kazakhstan. The main flow goes to the London Stock Exchange, and Kaspi left even London to list in New York, where volumes doubled."

He argued that reform alone will not reverse the pattern quickly, and that the decisive variable is political will directed at the right target:

"Liquidity does not arrive in a minute, even as reforms land and new participants come in — it accumulates. But it needs a further push. There has been debate here about Almaty and Astana, whether together or apart. That is 10% of the market. Why fight over 10%? You have to compete against London, you have to go and compete against New York — that is the challenge. Start with the great companies that already exist, then bring larger names to market through privatisation. That gives a push across a number of instruments, and from there interest snowballs."

Zharas Mussabekov put figures to the same point. On exchange data, up to 95% of trading volume in Kazatomprom shares takes place on the London Stock Exchange, leaving roughly 5% across both Kazakh venues combined, with a comparable skew in Kaspi and Halyk Bank securities. The conclusion drawn on the panel was that domestic financial infrastructure is better served by combining efforts to compete for global liquidity than by competing for share of a small domestic pool.

For Roemer Capital, that question sits at the centre of what we do. We work to connect international institutional capital with issuers and market infrastructure across Central Asia, the CIS and the South Caucasus — and deeper, better-served local markets are the outcome that makes that work compound. Astana Finance Days remains one of the most direct forums in which to advance it.

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