Path to wealth: How Kazakhstani tycoon Nurlan Smagulov made his fortune

Photo: astana-motors.kz, photo editor: Arthur Aleskerov

Over the last 12 years, Nurlan Smagulov, the owner of Astana Group, has increased his fortune fourfold from $240 million to $980 million. During these years — from 2012 to 2024 — he has been building and leasing shopping centers; and producing and selling cars.

Who is Smagulov and how did he make it onto the Forbes list?

Nurlan Smagulov was born in Almaty on June 2, 1965. In 1990, he graduated from the Kazakh State University (now called the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University), where he studied biology and chemistry. Two years after graduation he established Astana Motors. In 1996, he became the head of the state-owned Food Contract Corporation; in 2002, he was appointed the head of the board of directors of the Grain Industry agricultural company.

In 2012, Smagulov was added to the list of wealthiest people in Kazakhstan for the first time. At the time, the 47-year-old businessman was ranked 21st with a fortune of $240 million and the eighth among the most influential businessmen in the country. In 2006, he gathered all his assets within Astana Group, a diversified company that is engaged in car assembling, exploitation and leasing real estate, grain deals, flour and pasta production.

«Smagulov is a rare example of a businessman whose business is driven by non-commodity flows,» said Forbes, describing his business in 2012. MEGA shopping and entertainment centers accounted for the vast majority of Astana Group revenue.

In 2013, Smagulov nearly doubled his fortune to $450 million (+$210 million). Some media outlets reported Astana Motors tripled its sales in 2012, paying $17 million in taxes. In 2013, this sum doubled to $34 million.

The company was actively engaged in exports of Hyundai trucks to Belarus and Russia. In 2012, Hyundai Auto Trans, which is part of Astana Group, started producing the Hyundai County, a medium-sized urban bus. In turn, the Grain Industry accounted for 35% of all pasta macaroni produced in Kazakhstan and 50% of its exports.

The next year, Smagulov’s wealth rose by $90 million to $540 million. The distribution business line of Astana Motors is engaged in sales of prominent brands such as Hyundai, Subaru, BMW, MINI, Toyota, Lexus and Nissan. In 2014, the company started assembling the Hyundai i30, Elantra and Tuscon.

That year, Astana Motors was ranked sixth in a rating of the most rapidly growing companies in Kazakhstan, according to Forbes. The company launched one more shopping center — MEGA Park — in Almaty, reporting its revenue rose by 387% at the time.

Quitting agricultural business, assembling Santa Fe and exhibiting a private collection

The businessman quit the agricultural business, selling his Grain Industry for $30 million. Astana Motors also started producing Hyundai Santa Fe, Sonata, Grandeur and Genesis.

Smagulov owns more than a thousand pieces of art. In August 2015, he even organized an exhibition of his private collection. In the museum named after Kasteev, he put on display artworks by Andrei Noda, Vyacheslav Lui-Ko, Eduard Kazaryan, Abylaikhana Kasteeva, Salihitdina Aitbayeva and Zhanataya Shardenova. «The Woman with the Parrot» by Fernand Leger is the most expensive piece in Smagulov’s collection.

In 2016, Smagulov’s wealth shrunk by $140 million to $470 million. However, he was ranked first in the ranking of the biggest rentiers in Kazakhstan with $31.3 million in revenue from leasing his commercial properties with a floor size of 133,400 square meters. Smagulov sold two of his shopping centers — Mega Aktobe and Mega Astana — to ADD Invest Properties, LLC. The first center was sold for $22.6 million; the price of the second one is unknown. As of 2016, the network of shopping malls included Mega Alma-Ata, Mega Alma-Ata-2, Mega Park, Mega Astana, Mega Shymkent and Mega Aktobe.

In 2017, the businessman’s fortune once again declined by $70 million, reaching $400 million. At the time, the company opened two new dealer centers in Almaty — Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo Car Almaty. Also, Smagulov completed the construction of Mega Silk Way, investing $143.3 million in the shopping center in Astana with a floor size of 140,000 square meters. In the 2017 rentier ranking, Smagulov was ranked first with $31 million in revenue. This new mall, MEGA Silk Way, has become the largest shopping center in the businessman’s portfolio.

In 2018, he beefed up his assets by $50 million to $450 million. In particular, his portfolio was expanded at the expense of Angel-in-us, a retail café network from South Korea. The floor size of MEGA Alma-Ata has risen by 11,000 square meters. In 2019, Smagulov’s fortune rose to $525 million, slipping to $490 million in 2020. In 2021, the rate grew to $710 million and $750 million in 2022. In 2023, the businessman reported that his wealth grew to $810 ($980 million in 2024).

Charging stations, a new automotive plant and car leasing

In 2024, Astana Group started deploying a network of charging stations for electric vehicles with investments totaling $11.7 million. To complete the task, the company is partnering with Chinese TELD Energy Co. They have already launched four such stations.

During the presentation of the Mycar.kz marketplace, Smagulov revealed that the company is going to build a multi-brand plant to produce Chinese Chery, Haval and Changan cars. More than half of these cars will be exported as the plant is going to be the only such factory in the region. According to Smagulov, all cars will be painted in an automated regime with no human involvement.

Smagulov also said that his company is going to launch production of various automobile components each quarter to six months in order to deepen localization.

Astana Motors also plans to develop the car leasing market in Kazakhstan on the example of Penske Automotive Group, an American company that runs 360 dealer centers in nine countries and 400,000 cargo trucks in the U.S.

«Astana Motors has plans to expand this business line by examining the advanced experience of Penske. It will help us promote business in Kazakhstan, to launch leasing for individuals and companies,» Smagulov noted.

Astana Group is a holding structure for several companies operating in the non-commodity sector of Kazakhstan’s economy: in the automotive industry, car retail and shopping and entertainment centers. These are MEGA Alma-Ata network, MEGA Park in Almaty and MEGA Silk Way in Astana, the Mycar.kz marketplace for cars and Astana Motors, which represents 18 auto brands and two Hyundai plants in Kazakhstan.