Payment system operator Paynet privatized without announcement

The company Uzpaynet, which manages the Paynet payment service, has changed its founder. The Bankers.uz portal drew attention to the changes in the Unified State Register of Pools.

According to the register, 100% of the company belongs to New Industrial Technologies. The sale of the share was not officially announced, although information about a change of owner previously appeared on social networks.

New Industrial Technologies LLC was created in 2019 and has an authorized capital of 273.56 billion soums. The owner of 60% of the company is Alex Lee, another 40% belongs to Mustafo Abdurakhmanov, who is also listed as the company’s head.

Abdurakhmonov also owns 77.6% of Asia Alliance Group, the majority shareholder in Asia Alliance Bank. The remaining 22.4% belongs to Gor Investment Ltd, registered in the UK.

The Paynet service was created by Botir Arifjanov in 2005. Later, the businessman sold the company to the state, represented by Khalq Banki (People’s Bank), and resigned from its leadership.

More than 390 service providers, including housing and communal services, Internet and mobile communications, accept payments through the platform. As of 2022, Paynet was used by more than 1.3 million people per day.

In August 2022, UzSAMA announced that it was putting up for sale a 100% stake in Uzpaynet. Over the next month, seven applications were received from potential buyers, but the acceptance of proposals was delayed under the pretext of “additional clarification”.