Franklin Templeton to Name Banks for $1.7 Billion Uzbek Fund IPO

Uzbekistan’s $1.7 billion national investment fund is preparing for a dual listing at home and potentially in London in the first half of next year and has selected a group of eight banks to handle the offering, the fund’s manager said.

Franklin Templeton, which started overseeing the fund known as UzNIF in May, plans to name the banks advising on the IPO in the coming days, said Marius Dan, the executive in charge of Franklin’s mandate in Uzbekistan. The company is also picking board members in all of the 18 state-owned companies that are part of the fund’s ...