Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The process of privatizing the Joint Stock Company "National Interbank Processing Center" (HUMO) has begun in Uzbekistan. This was announced by the Agency for State Asset Management.

As part of the privatization, 100% of the state share in the company’s charter capital will be sold.

The international company Deloitte is acting as the consultant for the State Assets Agency on this project.

The trading process will be conducted in three stages, including the Expression of Interest (EOI), the collection of Non-Binding Offers (NBO), and the collection of Binding Offers (BO). In the final stage, applicants will need to make a guarantee payment of at least 1% of the proposed binding price offer.

Investors can submit expressions of interest until 18:00 (Tashkent time) on 22 August 2024.

It should be noted that in accordance with the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PP-381 from 30 November 2023, the "National Interbank Processing Center" LLC was transformed into a joint-stock company. The company’s share issuance was registered with the National Agency for Perspective Projects on 21 May 2024.

During the registration, 155,448,748 ordinary shares were issued with a nominal value of 1,000 sums each, totaling 155.4 billion sums, all of which are owned by the Agency for State Assets Management.

The National Payment System HUMO was established in September 2018 in response to a significant failure in the then sole processing center Uzcard, a private entity. This created a need for a state processing center to ensure the security of the national payment system and prevent monopolistic dominance.

According to the Central Bank, as of 1 March 2024, there are over 47.17 million plastic cards in circulation in Uzbekistan. HUMO has issued more than 23 million cards within the national payment system.

Across the country, there are more than 200,000 payment terminals and over 12,000 ATMs for cash withdrawal.