Ust-Kamenogorsk Airport has gone from losses to impressive profit in three years: revenue there has grown more than twofold. Over the same period, its sole shareholder, JSC "Social-Entrepreneurial Corporation (SEC) "Ertis", transferred assets worth almost KZT 15.7 billion to the company. FBRK compared the financial statements for 2023, 2024 and 2025 and the audit reports attached to them. The growth is impressive, but not all the figures in the documents reconcile with each other, and the largest part of the property remains the subject of an auditor's qualification.
WHAT THE STATEMENTS SHOW
Revenue of JSC "Ust-Kamenogorsk Airport" amounted to KZT 1.3 billion in 2023, 2.3 billion in 2024 and 3.2 billion in 2025. Net result by year: a loss of 181.8 million, a loss of 91.1 million and a profit of KZT 208.6 million. Gross profit, that is revenue less the cost of services, grew from 80.6 million to 609.5 million, and its share of revenue rose from 6.2% to 19.3%. The operating loss of 213.5 million in 2023 was replaced by an operating profit of 130.7 million in 2025. Cash increased from 199 million to 599.9 million. At the same time, the sum of net results over the three years remains negative: -KZT 64.4 million.
WHERE THE GROWTH CAME FROM AND WHY THE BALANCE SHEET GREW ALMOST EIGHTFOLD
The balance sheet increased from 2.2 billion at the beginning of 2023 to 18 billion at the end of 2025. The main contribution came not from earned money but from shareholder contributions. In 2023, SEC "Ertis" contributed long-term assets worth KZT 11.2 billion. In 2024, it contributed a further 4.5 billion through an additional share issue. Property, plant and equipment grew from 1.7 billion to KZT 17.2 billion.
Along with the property came depreciation, that is the gradual write-off of the value of assets to expenses. It grew from 186.3 million in 2023 to 280.1 million in 2024 and 361.1 million in 2025. Admittedly, the statements do not explain what exactly caused the growth in revenue. The notes for 2023 and 2025 contain no breakdown of income by type of service and no passenger traffic data. The coincidence in time with the commissioning of new assets is obvious, but the causal link is still not shown in the documents.
QUALITY OF PROFIT: TAX, CASH FLOW AND AUDIT
According to FBRK's assessment, the growth in the airport's efficiency is indeed real. Expenses in 2025 grew by 25.3%, while revenue grew by 37.5%. The share of administrative expenses in revenue declined from 22.4% to 15%.
But part of the final profit is merely accounting in nature. Profit before tax in 2025 amounted to 185.3 million, and it was brought up to 208.6 million by a tax effect of 23.2 million. This amount equals the increase in the deferred tax asset from 64.1 million to 87.3 million. This is an entry for future tax savings, not money received, and it accounts for about 11% of net profit. Why such an asset is growing at a company that has turned to profit is not explained in the notes. In the report form this amount is moreover shown in brackets, that is as a negative value, although arithmetically it is added to profit.
The cash picture looks somewhat better than the accounting one. Net cash flow from operating activities amounted to 421.8 million, roughly double the profit. About 96% of all money is held in two accounts: a savings account at JSC "Bank CenterCredit" (272.6 million) and at "Eurasian Bank" (304.1 million).
The statements were audited by three different companies. For 2023 it was LLP "Delovoy Audit", for 2024 - LLP "Er-Audit", and for 2025 - LLP "Expert Audit KZ". The last two expressed a qualified opinion: the auditors did not observe the inventory count of property, plant and equipment and inventories.
In 2025, the auditor stated that it had verified the quantity of assets through other procedures. The qualification concerns KZT 16.9 billion of property, plant and equipment, that is 94.3% of the balance sheet, and inventories of 164.7 million (+29.8%). Fuel in inventories grew by 40.9% to 94.3 million, and the provision for write-off by 48.2% to 5.9 million.
INCONSISTENCIES IN THE REPORTS
In the 2025 report, the comparative figures for 2024 differ in places from the audited statements for 2024. "Other expenses" for 2024 are stated as 0.9 million, whereas the original shows 1.9 million. Because of this 1 million difference, the components of the comparative column give a loss before tax of 89.1 million, although the total shown is 90.1 million. The total of long-term assets for 2024 is printed as 17.3 billion, whereas in the original and by the sum of the line items it equals 17.2 billion, while the overall balance sheet still reconciles.
Retained earnings at the end of 2025 in the balance sheet equal 178 million, while in the statement of changes in equity and in the explanatory note they are 178.3 million. The difference relates to the revaluation of property, plant and equipment. In the statement of equity it is shown as other comprehensive income, while in the statement of profit or loss it is absent: total comprehensive income there is 208.6 million, while in the statement of equity it is 208.9 million.
The line "balance as at 1 January of the previous year" in the same statement repeats the balances at the end of 2024 (17.3 billion). In fact, equity at the beginning of 2024 amounted to 12.9 billion. In addition, in the note on equity for 2024, "unpaid capital" of 20 million gives a total of 17,355.4 million, while the balance sheet shows 17,335.4 million. The notes for 2023 state an issue of 11,176,259 shares, whereas capital grew by 11.2 billion (the exact amount is 11,176,289 thousand, that is the discrepancy is 30 units).
WHAT THIS MEANS
Investments in 2025 amounted to KZT 69 million, about 19% of accrued depreciation. The residual value of property, plant and equipment has already declined by 233.8 million (from 17.2 billion to 16.9 billion). If this ratio persists with cash of 599.9 million, the wear of infrastructure may outpace its renewal.
Advances received from customers grew 3.1-fold to 76.6 million. About 71% of this amount comes from two air carriers: JSC "AK SCAT" (33.7 million) and AK "Sibir" (20.8 million). Such a concentration of advances indicates a high dependence on a limited circle of counterparties and increases the sensitivity of receipts to changes in the volume of cooperation with them.
Recall that FBRK previously analysed the 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 statements of JSC "Almaty International Airport". For three years in a row the airport's statements have been growing 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 the new terminal, which has frozen at a single value while the terminal itself has already been built and opened.
In the 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 statements, which Atyrau Airport later acknowledged and promised to correct in its next statements.
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The same three reporting years for JSC "Aliya Moldagulova International Airport" in Aktobe turned out to be completely different in terms of financial result. The company went through a net loss and an auditor's qualification, then through a sharp jump in profit and the appearance of borrowed funds, and afterwards through an increase in capital of almost half a billion tenge.
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