"The right of first refusal was exercised." Davaktiv commented on the privatization of Paynet without a public announcement

“The right of first refusal was exercised.” Davaktiv commented on the privatization of Paynet without public announcement

The State Assets Management Agency of Uzbekistan (SAMA) has commented on the privatization of the Paynet payment organization, which was not publicly announced. This was stated by the director of the agency, Sokhibjon Murodov, at a press conference on October 8, Gazeta correspondent reports.

The head of the agency noted that Paynet operated in the form of a limited liability company. According to the Law "On Limited Liability Companies," if one of the participants of a company intends to sell their share, they must first offer it for purchase to other participants or to the company itself. According to Murodov, this exact right was exercised in the privatization of Paynet.

The head of the agency stated that this practice is not limited to Paynet alone, and the right of first refusal for a share in the charter capital is also applied in other limited liability companies. According to him, such a procedure also exists in some companies that have currently been announced for sale.

“We have made changes to our working methods: even when using such privatization methods, we will now disclose information to the general public,” Murodov said.

The Paynet service was created in 2005 by Botir Arifjanov. Later, the entrepreneur was forced to sell the company to the state in the form of Khalq Bank (for $60,000, although its assets were valued at $10 million) and relinquish management.

In August 2022, Davaktiv put a 100 percent stake in Uzpaynet up for sale.

Over the following month, seven applications were received from potential buyers, but the acceptance of proposals was postponed under the pretext of "additional clarifications."

In April 2024, it became known that the founder of Uzpaynet, which manages Paynet, had changed.

100 percent of the state share on SAMA's balance sheet was transferred to New Industrial Technologies. Davaktiv did not inform the public about the privatization at that time.

New Industrial Technologies was state-registered in April 2019, with a charter capital of 273.56 billion soums. Today, the sole owner is Mustafo Abdurakhmonov, who also owns 77.6% of the shares of Asia Alliance Group, which is the main shareholder of Asia Alliance Bank.