Freedom Holding Corp., which is listed on Nasdaq, has recapitalized its Japanese subsidiary, Freedom Japan Co., Ltd., by purchasing 1,800 of its ordinary shares at an issue price of 50,000 yen per share. The total transaction value was 90 million yen, or approximately $563,000. As a result, the holding company consolidated a 90% stake in the Japanese entity.
The remaining 10% of Freedom Japan Co., Ltd. is owned by the local company Ledax Co., Ltd. (ticker: 7602 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange). The joint venture’s total capital will be 100 million yen.
Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp., noted that this transaction marks the fintech group’s entry into the Japanese financial market.
The partnership with Ledax Co., Ltd., a holding company active in insurance, auto retail, and mergers and acquisitions consulting, will help accelerate Freedom’s entry into the Japanese market.
“Japan is a very interesting market for us. It is one of the world’s key financial centers, with intense competition, but we are not afraid of that,” Turlov said. “On the contrary, we see enormous potential there for Freedom’s digital ecosystem.”
Timur Turlov noted that Freedom’s online supermarket Arbuz.kz has already signed exclusive agreements with Japanese partners to supply goods to users of the company’s SuperApp, describing this as the first step in the group’s broader expansion into Japan.
“Overall, our partners at Ledax help us better understand the local market and move more quickly; without them, it would certainly be more difficult for us to achieve our goals,” Turlov said.
The memorandum between Freedom Holding Corp. and Ledax Co., Ltd. was signed by the two companies in December of last year during Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s official visit to Japan. At that time, the Kazakh delegation, which also included representatives of the business community, signed around 50 different partnership documents worth $3.7 billion. These included a memorandum of cooperation between Baiterek National Management Holding JSC and MUFG Bank, Ltd. worth $1.28 billion, as well as agreements between Samruk-Kazyna JSC and Marubeni Corporation and between Kazatomprom National Atomic Company JSC and Kansai Electric Power Co.
At the same time, Freedom Holding Corp. and Kort Valuta Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing cooperation in digital financial technologies, ecosystem services, and innovative products. Arbuz Group LLP, an online retailer from the Freedom ecosystem, and Arai Shoji Co., Ltd. agreed to cooperate on supplying and exporting Japanese products to Kazakhstan.
The creation of the Japanese subsidiary is part of Timur Turlov’s strategy to expand the company’s ecosystem beyond Kazakhstan. In early June, the billionaire announced that his company was exploring Mongolia’s banking market and planned to apply to register a bank in Pakistan. In February, Timur Turlov’s Freedom Bank and Pakistan’s Meezan Bank Pakistan signed an agreement to open a PKR Vostro correspondent account. Last year, Freedom launched a fully digital bank in Tajikistan.
The banking segment of Freedom’s ecosystem is expanding not only eastward and southward but also westward. In March of this year, Freedom Holding agreed to purchase a controlling stake in Turkish Bank Group, giving it access to a market of around 90 million people. Together with the already registered brokerage company Freedom Investment Securities AS, this asset will become a key element in the development of the company’s digital ecosystem in Turkey. In an interview with Turkish media, Timur Turlov estimated the project’s investment volume at $300 million; the funds will go toward the development of digital services, brokerage services, and retail banking.
In early June, reports emerged that Freedom Holding had applied for a banking license in France. The holding plans to allocate 500 million euros to the development of a digital bank and local infrastructure in Europe. In Europe, Freedom already operates a growing brokerage business with more than 440,000 active accounts and $11 billion in client assets. The European division remains one of the group’s most profitable segments: by the end of fiscal 2025, Freedom Europe’s net fee and commission income had grown from $190 million in 2023 to $369 million.
Overall, Freedom founder Timur Turlov has emphasized that he sees the ecosystem’s future growth in global markets. He said Freedom would most likely enter the U.S. market first through a banking-as-a-service model, working with partners to roll out the project in the American market.
“Entering the EU market may take 1.5 to 2 years, as we need to complete all regulatory processes,” Turlov said. “We hope to begin building a SuperApp for the European Union market through selected partnerships.”
For the 2026 fiscal year, Freedom Holding reported record revenue of $2.19 billion. Since its listing on Nasdaq in 2019, revenue has grown 26-fold. Net income rose from $76.2 million to $153.3 million. The total assets of Turlov’s holding company reached $13.16 billion, compared with $9.92 billion a year earlier, while the ecosystem’s client base exceeded 14 million.
“Freedom Holding has successfully completed another financial year despite significant investments in ecosystem development,” Timur Turlov said when commenting on Freedom Holding Corp.’s annual results. “Our customer base is growing rapidly, which once again confirms the strength of our chosen strategy: building institutional infrastructure not around products and services, but with a focus on solving our clients’ key everyday needs.”
He pointed to the rapid growth of Freedom SuperApp as evidence of the ecosystem’s momentum.
“Today, Freedom SuperApp, the heart of our ecosystem, has a monthly active audience of more than 2.5 million, compared with just over one million a year ago. The total number of app users exceeds 5 million,” Turlov said. “And I know for certain that the solutions we have built in Kazakhstan will become universal across all markets where we operate.
