Kyivstar shares soar on Nasdaq: +17% for the day and bet on "peaceful signal"
Kyivstar shares on the second day of trading on the Nasdaq exchange showed a sharp increase of +17%. Against the background of news about negotiations to end the war, this signalled to investors that the market is clearly ready to bet on a "peaceful scenario".
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Kyivstar serves more than 23 million mobile subscribers in Ukraine and has long gone beyond the usual operator: the company's portfolio includes streaming, taxi services and digital healthcare. Last year, Kyivstar partnered with Elon Musk's Starlink to deploy satellite communications to secure its infrastructure against Russian attacks.
Its entry into the Nasdaq was made possible by a merger with SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company). The securities are traded under the ticker KYIV and have already managed to compensate for the losses of the first day of trading. Siebert Financial vice-president Mark Malek said that the company has growth potential, but it should focus on the high-tech segment in communications.
Kyivstar Group Ltd. shares are up 17% (18.08.2025). Illustration: Bloomberg
Behind Kyivstar is parent company Veon, a Dubai-listed company that owns about 90% of the shares. Interest in the company is fuelled by the composition of its board of directors, which includes former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Investors are clearly looking at telecom assets through the prism of Ukraine's future recovery. UBS says its index of European companies that could profit from post-war reconstruction is up 32 per cent since the start of the year - compared with a modest 9.1 per cent for the Stoxx 600.
Source: Bloomberg
