Shokan Ualikhanov Private School Reclassified as Large Business After Staff Tops 250

Shokan Ualikhanov Private School, owned by businessman Kenes Rakishev and his wife Asel Tasmagambetova, has moved into Kazakhstan’s large-business category, as it reported to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). The reason is that its headcount has increased to more than 250 employees, Orda.kz reports.

However, the school’s annual revenue does not exceed 13 million tenge, meeting the criteria for inclusion in the large-business category. The school’s new status is now reflected in its charter.

It is co-owned by Rakishev, via his holding company Fincraft Group, and Tasmagambetova. While no recent public data on their ownership stakes is available, it was revealed last summer that Rakishev gifted his wife a 9% stake in the educational institution that he had held directly.

Shortly before that, the school issued bonds on KASE with a face value of 1 billion tenge, offering an annual interest rate of 21%. The proceeds were intended to fund infrastructure development and the school’s financing, including grants for graduates to enroll in universities worldwide.

Shokan Ualikhanov School has been operating since 2020. For the first three quarters of 2025, it reported a net loss of 588 million tenge. Its assets stood at 17.4 billion tenge and its equity at 6.7 billion.

Original author: Alexey Afonsky