Company: FRHC
Filing Date: 2025-07-29
Form Type: ARS
Source: 0000924805-25-000027
Chunk: 21

Company: Freedom Holding Corp.
Filing Date: 2025-07-29
Form: ARS
Chunk 21
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 us as a leader in cross-border investment facilitation in Central Asia. Table of Contents 16

In the banking sector, Freedom Bank KZ continues to expand its footprint. Its main competitors include Halyk Bank, Kaspi Bank, and Bank CenterCredit. While our competitors maintain dominant positions in retail and SME banking, we differentiate ourselves through our investment-driven banking model, digital-first service delivery, and unique synergy between our banking and brokerage operations, offering customers seamless integration of financial services under one platform. In the insurance sector, Freedom Life and Freedom Insurance, operate in Kazakhstan's competitive life and general insurance markets. Key life insurance competitors include Halyk-Life, Nomad Life, and European Insurance Company (EIC). In the non-life insurance segment, our main competitors are Eurasia Insurance Company, Kommesk- Omir, and Victoria Insurance Company. While these firms benefit from scale and long-standing market positions, we differentiate our offering through digital-first distribution, investment-linked insurance products, and integration with our banking and brokerage platforms. In Europe, we compete with digital-first brokers such as eToro and Interactive Brokers. These firms offer scale, brand recognition, and user engagement through social trading (eToro) and broad market access (Interactive Brokers). Nonetheless, our European customers benefit from curated research, access to U.S. pre-IPO markets, and personalized service tailored to emerging market investors seeking to diversify internationally areas where we maintain a niche edge. In the United States, our competition includes boutique investment banks and capital markets firms such as Needham & Company, Craig-Hallum Capital Group, and Oppenheimer & Co. These institutions have longstanding customer bases and capital markets experience. However, we aim to distinguish ourselves by leveraging our cross-border capital raising capabilities, our presence in fast-growing emerging markets, and our strength in supporting undercovered issuers. In 2024, we initiated a strategic expansion into the telecommunications and media sectors in Kazakhstan, supported by a large domestic bond issuance in the AIX. As a result, we may also face competition from leading telecommunications operators, such as Kazakhtelecom, Tele2/Altel, and Beeline Kazakhstan, as well as from domestic and international media content providers. This expansion represents a diversification strategy aligned with our vision of becoming a digital ecosystem that connects finance, media, and communications. HUMAN CAPITAL We employ a talented team of well-educated and experienced employees spanning 22 countries. As of March 31, 2025, we had 8,764