Category: Business

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company (PMIC), a private-sector firm which aims to use public funding to invest commercially in people and businesses on lower incomes, was launched on Thursday by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

The PMIC has been created by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and Karandaaz Pakistan — funded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) — and the KfW, a German government-owned development bank.

Microfinance is central to Pakistan’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy, launched in May 2015. The PMIC aims to help create a new supply chain for microfinance services. At present, 4.2 million Pakistanis are accessing microfinance services out of an estimated potential market of 20.5m.

The investment company also targets expanding microfinance to those low-income people who would otherwise have no access to banking and other financial services. The financing made in this regard will go through micro-entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises, and help drive business expansion, create jobs and spur economic growth.

Speaking on the occasion, PMIC Chairman Zubyr Soomro said the company was first of its kind as it was a market-based wholesale funding institution for microfinance at national level. “We look for it to lead financial inclusion to encompass affordable housing, livelihoods, energy and education finance,” he said. “This is an opportunity for significant growth in access to finance in Pakistan.”

British High Commissioner Thomas Drew said that “enterprising people from across communities in Pakistan are being held back by not being able to get access to finance — which they would use to increase their income and build their businesses”.

German Ambassador Ina Lepel also spoke on the occasion. “Microfinance is an important catalyst for business, employment and jobs. Germany is glad to have joined forces with our partners in order to foster the business potential of the people of Pakistan, especially the youth, through better access to finance.”

KARACHI: Lucky Cement Limited on Thursday reported a 9.1 per cent increase in net profit at Rs3.24 billion translating into earnings per share (eps) of Rs10.01 for the first quarter ended September 30 over the same period last year.

Net sales revenue increased by 2.3pc to Rs10.57bn over Rs10.33bn in the corresponding period last year. “The rise in net sales revenue was mainly attributable to increase in sales volume,” the company said in an announcement.

The local sales in the quarter grew 25.4pc to 1.34 million tonnes from 1.07m tonnes whereas exports declined 27.2pc to 0.36 million tonnes from 0.49 million tonnes in the same period last year.

On a consolidated basis, Lucky Cement reported net profit of Rs3.78bn for 1QFY16, which was 14.6pc higher over the same period last year.

OGDCL: Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) declared 1QFY17 earnings at Rs14.6bn (eps Rs3.4), down 20pc year-on-year. This result announcement was in line with market expectations.

The result also accompanied by cash dividend of Rs1.5/share. Analysts at Topline Securities marked key features as decline in OGDCL net sales by 11pc to Rs39.5bn in 1QFY17, mainly on account of 14pc fall in Arab Light Crude oil prices to $43 a barrel during the period.

During 1QFY17, OGDC’s oil sales volume increased by 4pc year-on-year to 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), while gas volume shrank by 5pc to 1,074 mmcfd as per provisional numbers.

The company booked exploration charges of Rs4.3bn, up 139pc year-on-year in 1QFY17.

Engro Corporation Ltd: The company reported a 3pc decline year-on-year in its profit to Rs8.6bn (eps: Rs16.4) in January-September period over Rs8.9bn (eps: Rs17) in the corresponding period last year. The results also accompanied an interim cash dividend of Rs8 per share taking the 9MCY16 payout to Rs20 per share.

Analyst Arubah Zia at BMA Capital Management attributed the decline in earnings to 14pc year-on-year fall in topline due to fertiliser industry dynamics (EFERT’s topline down 21pc YoY in 9MCY16) and pressure on EFOODS’ volumes. Gross margins contracted 4 percentage points.

D.G. Khan Cement: The company announced 1QFY17 eps at Rs4.35 slightly below expectation of Rs4.66. “Variance in earnings is primarily attributable to above-expected operational expenses and an effective tax rate of 31pc,” says analyst Abdul Samad Khanani at Intermarket Securities.

PAT increased 11pc year-on-year led by 6 percentage points increase in gross margins, 9pc increase in local/export despatches and 8pc rise in other income. Effective tax rate, on the other hand, stood at 31pc compared to 24pc in the same period last year.

Karachi – Meezan Bank’s Annual Report 2015, based on the theme ‘Infinite Possibilities’ has been awarded the prize of being the 2^nd Best Corporate Report in Pakistan’s banking sector by the joint committee of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP).

Mr. Shabbir Hamza Khandwala, CFO and Group Head Finance-Meezan Bank, received the award on behalf of the Bank at a ceremony held recently in Karachi.

Launched in the year 2000, the ‘Best Corporate Report Awards’ are the most prestigious awards in Pakistan for recognizing and encouraging corporations to follow international best practices in preparing their annual reports. They are held jointly by ICAP and ICMAP every year to recognize organizations for the quality and depth of their corporate reporting systems.

Meezan Bank’s recognition as one of the top annual reports demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to ethics of transparency and maintaining an open and direct relationship with its stakeholders. The Bank’s Annual Reports have been receiving this award for the last several years; it is noteworthy that the Bank has held the top third position for the past two years and has elevated to second position, this year.

LAHORE: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Aamir Fayyaz has appealed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce the Textile Industry Revival Package without further delay in order to increase exports, create jobs and attract foreign investment.

He said the APTMA members were hoping for an announcement of the much-needed revival package, which included removal of incidence of duties on cotton import, duty free import of man-made fibres not manufactured locally, reduction in cost of doing business, reduction in local taxes and levies, eligibility of long term finance facility for indirect support, refund on packing materials, and lifting of moratorium on new gas connections.

He further said that energy was a major component of the cost of production and its availability on regionally competitive rate was imperative for the export-oriented textile industry. Therefore, the government should notify the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to abolish its multi-year tariff on energy.

He said a stable macro-economic situation of the country was highly appreciable and the credit goes to the government. Now, a stable micro-economic situation would further strengthen the various segments of the economy, especially the textile industry, he added.

Aamir said the revival package should be made public without delay since the government and the textile industry representatives were on the same page regarding the measures to be taken in order to strengthen the textile industry.

He said the package for restoration of viability could help in the revival of closed capacity. Moreover, the industry is also considering to implement investment plans in order to catch up with competitors in the area of technology up gradation of the manufacturing units.

ISLAMABAD: Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao has said that the Diamer-Bhasha Dam was a gigantic project, but its funding was yet to be decided.

While speaking to journalists after an agreement signing ceremony on Wednesday, he said that the government of Pakistan was taking serious steps to prevent corruption and tax evasion. He said that good governance and law and order situation were the biggest challenges for the country’s government and it should continue to tackle it with reforms.

He said that the government should go an extra mile for bringing investments to Pakistan, as the country was going to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and creating awareness about their tax policies they could attract a lot of investment.

He said that the ADB was providing assistance to Pakistan in the fields of energy and infrastructure. The bank has decided to enhance the financial assistance to the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) countries. An agreement was signed between government of Pakistan and the ADB for a loan of $250 million for the CAREC’s Regional Improvement of Border Services Project.

While speaking on the occasion, the finance minister thanked ADB for providing support to Pakistan in the border management sector. He assured Pakistan’s commitment to mobilise all possible resources for improving and developing regional connectivity and linkages particularly with Afghanistan and Central Asian Region. Furthermore, he mentioned that the government was very much keen to enhance economic cooperation with Central Asia. The components of the CAREC project were development of physical infrastructure at border crossing points, provision of equipments (scanner, weigh-bridges etc), IT hardware and software support-transition to single window system and streamlining cross border procedures and capacity development.

Senator Dar appreciated the leadership of President Nakao and thanked him for the continued commitment of ADB to support economic cooperation and development amongst CAREC member states. Senator Ishaq Dar also welcomed Georgia, the newest and 11th member of the CAREC family and said that it was a memorable occasion that Georgia joined the CAREC family at the 15th Ministerial conference hosted in Pakistan.

The multilateral and international development agencies congratulated Pakistan for holding the 15th Ministerial conference, stating that it is a sign of the country’s commitment towards regional cooperation, increased connectivity, shared prosperity and elimination of poverty. The finance minister while chairing the meeting gave an overview of Pakistan’s economy and said that all key macroeconomic indicators have recorded significant improvement in the country over the past three years. He underlined that improvement in fiscal sustainability, foreign exchange reserve position, and governance structures, has led to the emergence of Pakistan as a trustworthy and long-term destination for global partnerships, collaboration and investment. He said that the country was now well positioned to play a pivotal role in enhancing economic cooperation between CAREC member states. He emphasised the importance of developing road, rail and energy corridors within the CAREC countries and said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would complement the regional connectivity initiatives of CAREC countries as it offers a massive opportunity for connectivity between Central Asia, Middle East and Africa and is bound to play a defining role in the economic development of CAREC region. The finance minister said that the conference provides a valuable opportunity for enhancement of regional ties in four areas of CAREC focus, which are energy, transportation, trade policy and trade facilitation. Minister Dar said that infrastructure development was a prerequisite to increased growth and urged the multilateral partners to increase their development collaboration with CARERC member states in this area to bridge the financing gaps.

Karachi – Pakistan Business & Economic Summit convened place at a local hotel in Karachi. Nutshell Forum & CORPORATE PAKISTAN GROUP hosted this day long summit in association with Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI) and Pakistan Business Council (PBC). Summit is supported by Ministry for Water & Power; Board of Investment; Privatisation Commission of Pakistan and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. Minister for state and chairman privatization commission Mohammad Zubair and Spokesman of Prime Minister, Mussadiq Malik expressed their views on various issues during this conference.

Mohammad Zubair, while speaking to the participants of Summit said “Pakistan’s economy was facing uncertain situation in 2013. Government worked day and night in its first three years to revive country’s economy and our hard work has put the economy on the path of prosperity. Pakistan Stock exchange is now the best stock exchange of region and its rise is a prove of governments successful economic policies.”Mussadiq Malik said that CPEC is a revolutionary project under which new power plants will be set up and new employment opportunities will be created. Heavy investment will change the fortunes of Gwadar and Balochistan. Thar will also reap benefits of various projects. New Power plants will be established in Sindh which will solve electricity problems of province.

Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan, Minister of State & Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue said that “Business community is responding positively to government’s policies pertaining to taxes. Increase in number of tax payers is the evidence of our successful policies. We are in process of implementing new polices to bring more improvement in country’s economy.

Expressing his views at the inaugural session of Pakistan Business & Economic Summit, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, Founding CEO Nutshell Forum said “Think tanks working in various countries are playing effective role in policy research and analysis that provide systematic analysis to enable them make informed and quality decisions about domestic and international policy related issues. Role of Think tanks in Pakistan is very limited. From this platform of Nutshell Forum and CORPORATE PAKISTAN GROUP, we want to highlight the importance of think tanks in Pakistan. I also want to elaborate that during this day long Pakistan Business & Economic Summit, we will carry out in depth discussion on various issues pertaining to Investment Agenda & Economic Climate; Tax Reforms & Policies; Digital Future and Pakistan’s Energy Needs & Infrastructure Challenges. This summit is designed for CEOs; business leaders; government officials and C-suite level management executives.”

Prominent personalities from numerous national and multinational spoke during this conference and apprise the participants about the challenges and opportunities of their respective sectors.  Dr. Miftah Ismail (Minister of State & Chairman, Board of Investment); Dr. Syed Ismail Shah (Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority); Arif Habib(Chairman, Arif Habib Corporation); Ehsan A. Malik (CEO, Pakistan Business Council); Shahab Rizvi (President, OICCI); S. M. Shabbar Zaidi (Senior Partner, A. F. Ferguson & Company, a member firm of PwC); Syed Asad Ali Shah (Managing Partner, Deloitte Pakistan); Syed Masoud Ali Naqvi (Chairman, Tax Reforms Commission & Member of Tax Reforms Implementation Committee); Dr. Farrukh Iqbal (Dean & Director, IBA); Kimihide Ando (CEO for Pakistan & Senior Vice President, Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan); Hassan Nasir Jami (Additional Secretary for Water & Power); Khalid Mansoor (Vice President, OICCI & CEO, HUBCO); Shamsuddin A. Shaikh (CEO, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company Limited); Mohammad Ali Tabba (CEO, Lucky Cement Limited & Vice Chairman, ICI Pakistan Limited); Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig (Chairman, Baig Group); Zafar I. Sobani (Board Member, Privatisation Commission); Abrar Hasan (Director, PBC & Managing Director, National Foods Limited); Dr. Amjad Waheed (CEO, NBP Fullerton Asset Management Limited); Abdul Aleem (CEO & Secretary General, OICCI); Mosharraf Zaidi (Columnist & Founder, Alif Ailaan); Dr. Huma Baqai (Anchor, Analyst & Associate Professor, IBA & Board Member, FWBL) and Malahat Awan (CEO, British Business Centre) spoke during various sessions of Pakistan Business & Economic Summit.

Over 250 delegates including CEOs, Ministers, Diplomats, Energy experts, Investors and members of civil society will participate Pakistan Business & Economic Summit.

Anomalies and discrepancies in the newly promulgated labour laws in Sindh will be removed and a business friendly environment will be provided; Advisor to CM for Law Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui

Karachi : Murtaza Wahab Siddiqi, Advisor to the Chief Minister Sindh for Law, assured the employers  that the anomalies and discrepancies in the newly promulgated labour laws in Sindh will be removed and a business friendly environment will be provided to the private sector to play their vital role in the economic and social development of the Province of Sindh.

Barrister Murtaza Wahab Siddiqi, Advisor to the Chief Minister Sindh for Law, Enquiries and Anti corruption, Establishment, Government of Sindh was addressing the international Human resource Conference 2016 organised by Employers Federation of  Pakistan in collaboration with the International Labour Organization at a local hotel today as the Chief guest.

Mr, Abdul Raheem Soomro, Secretary Commerce & Industries, as the Guest of Honour at the Conference emphasised upon the role to be played by the HR professionals in optimising the use of Human capital at the enterprise level which she said would play a vital role in building transformational change in the ability of our business enterprises to combat the challenges of global and international market.

Ms. Ingrid Christensen, Country Director. ILO Islamabad, in her remarks on the occasion emphasised on the role of HR professionals in developing new tools and practices needed to meet the emerging challenges in the future of work. The decent work Agenda which is at the centre of United Nations Sustainable Development goals should in fact attract most attention of the HR professionals as they provide leadership to the business enterprises in meeting their objectives of Sustainable development, full engagement of women in economic activities as well as bringing the informal economy in the mainstream.

Earlier Mr. Khawaja Muhammad Nauman emphasised upon the important role the HR professionals were expected to play in preparing the tomorrow’s human assets today, combating challenges in the future of work and achieving productivity through HR leadership. He said that HR professionals, by use of their strategic roles as business partners could change the dynamics of enterprise growth in the province and demanded that the business friendly environment should be provided by the Government to capitalise upon the role of private sector in industrial growth which will ultimately result in achieving the decent Work Agenda for the mutual benefit of business enterprises and employee welfare. He also presented a Memorandum of Solutions signed by EFP and ten industrial associations representing the industry of Sindh which recommended to the Government 7 point Agenda to address the issues of labour Laws, Labour Inspection and productivity challenges.

Later in the Conference, the results of the contest, companies with best HR practices were recognised for the EFP Awards of excellence in best HR practices. The Award wining companies were total PARCO, DP WORLD, BAYER Pakistan receiving the first Prize while Archroma and Lotte chemical Pakistan limited receiving the second prize in the multinational sector companies category.

Meezan Bank limited and PAK Arab refinery received the first prize while Mari petroleum and allied Bank limited received the second prize in the category of Large National Companies. The Epla Laboratories received the wining prize in the SME category.

Mr. Abdul Rasheed Solangi, Secretary Labour, Government of Sindh, Mr. Alamghir shah, Government of KPK, Mr. Paul Witte, Director DECP, Mr. Kanishka Weera Singhe, Director General of Employer’s Federation of Ceylon, Mr. Zahoor Awan, secretary, PWF also spoke on the occasion. A number of speakers and panelists shared their knowledge and experience on the latest tools and techniques to equip the HR professionals in playing their roles as strategic business partner during the six business sessions of the Conference.

Karachi: Engro Fertilizer`s consolidated earnings went up seven per cent  to Rs 2.9 billion in the third quarter from 2.7bn a year ago, it announced on Tuesday. Earnings per share increased to Rs. 2.2 from 2.1.

Analysts at Topline Securities commented  that in the July and September  quarter , revenues of the company increased 33.3pc year on year to Rs 18.6bn.

LAHORE – The real estate sector on Monday staged a protest demonstration against the federal government over imposition of heavy taxation on transfer of land.

Thousands of protesters, representing different dealers and property agents association of the city, launched a protest rally from DHA which concluded on The Mall.
Different associations including DHA Real Estate Agents Association, Johar Town Property Dealers Association, EME Colony Property Dealers Association, Bahria Town All Property Dealers Association, Raiwind Road and Mohlanwal Property Dealers Association participated in the protest.

The protesters chanted slogans against the government, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Federal Board of Revenue.
While addressing the protest near Faisal roundabout, the speakers said that the government should withdraw heavy taxes imposed on the real estate after July 01, 2016 and tax slab should be restored at the level of 30th June that would help revival of this vibrant sector.
They demanded that as like stock exchange, investors of real estate should be given amnesty so that buyers of property could easily show the sources.
Federal govt and provinces should collect tax at same valuation table and Federal Board of Revenue should adopt DC rate with an increase of 10 percent, they demanded.

The speakers said that real estate is a dynamic sector and has the ability to attract huge foreign investment but because of adverse policies and heavy taxation, it is facing catastrophe-like circumstances and struggling for survival.

DHA Real Estate Agents Association president Major (retired) Rafiq Hasrat said that real estate sector is the second largest job provider and its crisis would lead to the unemployment.

He said that transactions in real estate sectors have been fallen by around 90 percent.
If the government withdraws taxes from real estate sector, it would enhance government’s revenue as number of transactions would be increased.
He said that the government cannot achieve its economic targets without due support of the property sector.

“The property dealers fear that the measures adopted by the government would lead to corruption and nepotism in addition to depriving the legitimate income to the thousands of dealers involved in the business,” he said.

The association’s general secretary said that all investment in property business had been totally finished due this unjustified property tax, and now this investment was now going to other countries especially UAE.
He said that this would also hurt the economic situation in Pakistan, and thousands of people would become jobless.

Ahsan Malik said that the government should consult the property dealers and real estate consultants before imposing any such tax.
He said that they were businessmen and were against protests, but the government had left them with no other option.