Over three financial years, the revenue of JSC "Shymkent Airport" grew almost fivefold: from KZT 3.3 billion to KZT 15.5 billion. At first glance, this looks like the story of the rapid growth of Kazakhstan's southern air hub. But the company's net profit over the same period not only failed to grow proportionally — it collapsed to fractions of a percent of revenue. And in the notes to the latest financial statements, figures emerge that do not reconcile with each other within the very same document. The FBRK editorial team decided to examine Shymkent Airport's financial statements.
WHAT IS KNOWN FROM THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FBRK analysed three sets of audited financial statements of JSC "Shymkent Airport" — for 2023, 2024 and 2025, including comparative data for 2022. And here is what we found.
The company's revenue grew from KZT 3.3 billion (2022) to KZT 4.4 billion (2023), KZT 7.9 billion (2024) and KZT 15.5 billion (2025). More than 70% of 2025 revenue came from aviation fuel sales (KZT 10.8 billion versus KZT 961 million in 2022), whereas income from airport services proper grew far more modestly — roughly twofold over the same period.
Net profit does not match the revenue dynamics: KZT 221 million (2022), KZT 511 million (2023), KZT 131 million (2024, a fall of 74%) and KZT 133 million (2025 — effectively no growth). The net margin declined from 6.7% in 2022 to 0.86% in 2025.
All three independent audit reports — for 2023, 2024 and 2025 — contain a qualified opinion. The last revaluation of fixed assets was carried out as at 31 December 2014, and since then the company has not analysed whether the carrying amount of its assets corresponds to their fair value, which the auditors describe as non-compliance with the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 16 "Property, Plant and Equipment".
From 9 January 2024, a 100% stake in the airport was transferred to the trust management of JSC "SCAT Airlines" for a term of 10 years — until 2034.
THE AIRPORT'S OPERATIONS
The airport's operations as a natural monopoly entity are regulated by the relevant Kazakh law. Tariff policy is approved by the Committee for the Regulation of Natural Monopolies of the Ministry of National Economy. The sole shareholder is a municipal entity, meaning the company's revenue and profit directly affect the interests of Shymkent's budget.
The trust management agreement obliges SCAT to reconstruct the apron, develop a master plan for the airport's development and invest over ten years at least KZT 4 billion in the reconstruction of buildings and the renewal of equipment. In return, the manager receives the right to remuneration of 30% of the airport's net income — a wording under which growth in the company's turnover benefits the manager even if the bottom-line profit does not grow.
It is also noteworthy that even before the trust management began, in 2023, the airport sold SCAT a plot of land, recognising income from that transaction of KZT 900 million. It was this one-off operation that secured the record profit of 2023: without it, the pre-tax financial result would in fact have been a loss — a calculation based on the figures disclosed in the financial statements gives a negative figure of around KZT 164 million. By the end of 2023, SCAT and JSC "Air Astana" accounted for 91.5% of the airport's entire trade receivables — versus 54.9% a year earlier — and a significant portion of the land plot receivable was recorded as overdue.
WHAT THIS MEANS
Particularly noteworthy here is the timing coincidence: the explosive growth in revenue from fuel resale begins precisely in 2024 — immediately after operational management of the airport passed to the airline. Over 2024–2025, this segment grew more than sevenfold. Formally, this increases the base for calculating the manager's remuneration, since the agreement ties its share specifically to the company's net income.
At the same time, expenses grew at the same pace as revenue — and for part of the year, faster: administrative expenses nearly tripled over three years, and the company's total liabilities in 2025 grew by 156% — from KZT 1.8 billion to approximately KZT 4.5 billion — while equity remained virtually unchanged (growth of 1%). For the first time in the period under review, the company attracted a loan — KZT 1.5 billion in 2025 — and the financial leverage ratio jumped from 4.85% to approximately 24%.
Of particular note is an internal discrepancy within the 2025 financial statements themselves. In the note on trade payables, the amount stated is KZT 946 million, whereas in the notes on currency risk and capital management, the same item as at the same date appears as KZT 1.72 billion — almost double. There is no data in the public part of the financial statements that would explain this discrepancy.
Another textual inaccuracy was found in the auditor's report for 2024. The paragraph on the absence of revaluation of fixed assets reproduces verbatim the wording from the 2023 report, referring to 2023, 2022 and 2021 — without updating it for the 2024 reporting year. In the 2025 report, the same wording is already correctly extended to 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022.
If the trend continues, the city as sole shareholder will continue to receive increasingly modest dividends from an asset growing in turnover: the payout for 2024 amounted to only KZT 91.5 million versus KZT 357.5 million a year earlier — a fall of 74% — and for the late payment of that larger payout, the company was charged a penalty of KZT 4.2 million. Rising debt burden with unchanged equity increases the enterprise's financial risks, especially combined with the absence of hedging of currency positions — turnover on exchange rate differences in 2025 grew roughly sevenfold compared with 2024.
The unresolved issue of fixed asset revaluation, lasting more than ten years, means that the carrying amount of the state airport's assets does not reflect their real market value, and therefore any decisions based on these figures (from calculating the manager's remuneration to assessing the effectiveness of investments) rest on an outdated base.
We recall that FBRK previously examined the financial statements of JSC "Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport" for 2024. There, the auditor refused to vouch for 80% of assets, the airport lost a court case to the state for KZT 395.4 million, and the difference between the amount of the debt and its present value due to the instalment plan was recognised as income.
We soon analysed the financial statements of JSC "Almaty International Airport". For three years in a row, the airport's financial statements grew in revenue, but a line-by-line comparison of the reports for 2023, 2024 and 2025 reveals not just growth but a set of details that migrate from document to document unchanged, including the wording about an expired licence and the amount of the liability for the construction of a new terminal, which remained frozen at a single value while the terminal itself had already been built and opened.
In the financial statements of JSC "Khiuaz Dospanova International Airport", our editorial team discovered a recurring error in the calculation of earnings per share and inconsistencies in the notes to the financial statements, which Atyrau Airport later acknowledged and promised to correct in its next financial statements.