Freedom Holdings looks to buy small Portuguese bank

A Russian-born Kazakhstani entrepreneur says he is interested in acquiring a small Portuguese bank to increase his company’s portfolio profile in Europe.

Timur Turlov, 36, the CEO of Freedom Holdings, which he founded in 2008 as part of a bold strategy to acquire companies in different sectors, and is worth an estimated €4Bn, told the online news source ECO that the holding has acquired many startups in Kazakhstan for a reasonable price and had helped build up those startups over the past five years and successfully integrate them into his company.

He said that Portugal is one European country where Freedom is present through its Cyprus registered broker Freedom Finance and its financial assets platform Freedom24.

Based in Kazakhstan, the Freedom Group has subsidiary companies (Freedom Finance Europe) in the United Staes, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kirghizistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, United Arab Emirates, Germany, UK, and Cyprus (its European HQ), as well as offices in Greece, France, and Spain.

Freedom Finance Europe also has an office in Madrid where it manages the assets of around 5,500 clients in Portugal with US$8 million of assets. In the European Union it has around 250,000 clients.

In an interview with Negócios, the company’s director of business development, Olga Milko said that when they had been in Lisbon for the Web Summit, they were was thinking that within a year the company would open an office in Lisbon to support local clients in Portugal.

The company says that it is also looking to buy a small bank in Portugal, but as yet has not approached any existing banks. It has, however, held some preliminary conversations with regulators on the requirements necessary to operate as a bank in Portugal and how to get a licence. However, it has not yet begun the process of identifying which banking institution it might acquire.