Lesha Bank, the Doha-headquartered Islamic financial institution, signed a share purchase agreement on 31 March 2024 to acquire 100% of Bereke Bank, a commercial bank operating in Kazakhstan. The transaction is priced at 65 billion Kazakh Tenge, equivalent to approximately USD 134.9 million at current exchange rates, and represents the first acquisition of a Kazakhstani bank by a Qatari entity — a milestone that signals the growing appetite of Gulf financial institutions for cross-regional expansion into Central Asia.
Bereke Bank operates a network of 18 branches across Kazakhstan and carries a BB stable credit rating from a major international rating agency. The bank's established retail and commercial banking franchise gives Lesha Bank an immediate licensed operational presence in Central Asia, bypassing the extended timelines and regulatory complexity typically associated with building a greenfield bank operation in a new jurisdiction from scratch.
A QATARI FIRST IN CENTRAL ASIA
The transaction marks a meaningful departure from the largely Gulf-centric international expansion trajectories pursued by Qatari financial institutions to date. Central Asia has attracted growing investor interest from the Gulf as Kazakhstan — the region's largest economy by GDP — has deepened integration with international capital markets, made progress on financial sector liberalisation, and positioned itself as a logistics and trade hub at the intersection of Chinese and European supply chains. Bereke Bank itself has an interesting recent history: it was formerly Sberbank Kazakhstan before being rebranded following the Russian bank's exit from the Kazakh market amid the international sanctions environment of 2022, and it subsequently attracted interest from investors looking for a well-structured, branch-networked lender at an opportune valuation.
For Lesha Bank, the acquisition reflects a stated strategic ambition to develop an international presence beyond the Gulf Cooperation Council. Kazakhstan offers a combination of a growing middle class, substantial natural resource wealth, and an improving regulatory environment for foreign bank ownership. The bank has framed the deal as access to a high-growth emerging market in which conventional banking penetration remains below the levels seen in comparable GCC economies.
CONDITIONS AND REGULATORY APPROVALS
The share purchase agreement signed on 31 March 2024 remains subject to regulatory approvals from authorities in both Kazakhstan and Qatar before the transaction can be formally completed and control transferred. In Kazakhstan, the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, which oversees the country's banking sector, must consent to the proposed change of ownership. In Qatar, the relevant financial regulators are expected to review the proposed outbound investment as part of their standard oversight of cross-border transactions involving Qatari-licensed financial institutions.
The requirement for dual-jurisdiction regulatory approval means that the timeline for completing the transaction will be determined largely by the pace of review in both countries. Lesha Bank has stated its intention to engage constructively with the relevant authorities throughout the approval process. Once all conditions are satisfied and the acquisition is completed, Lesha Bank would hold a commercial banking licence in a market that sits at the convergence of the Belt and Road trade corridor and the broader Central Asian economic region — a strategic position with implications for trade finance, treasury, and corporate banking beyond the immediate Kazakhstani market.