PRO 01-03-2012_Layout 1 3/1/2012 4:06 AM Page 1
Bulls stampede after tax reforms implementation, index up 138pts
profit.com.pk
Page 03
Thursday, 01 March, 2012
PSO downplays NATO jet fuel supply rumours KARACHI GHULAM ABBAS
P
Reaction of industries over trade liberalisation with India Decision to phase out negative list will harm local industry KARACHI
t
GHULAM ABBAS
He decision made by the cabinet on Wednesday to eliminate negative List, under the MFn status, by December this year will affect the domestic industry badly. the local industries which have proposed over 1,200 items to be included in the negative list would not be able to sustain the flow of indian made ups within next 10 months. according to syed nabeel Hashmi, Chairman PaaPaM, the Wednesday’s development was not understandable as the move would not leave time for establishing infrastructures for a level playing field for trade with new Delhi. the auto industry had suggested having the cap on imports of the auto parts for at least four to five years, but the haste in normalisation of trade with the neighboring country was not justified. it is worth mentioning here that the ministry of commerce through a summary sent to the cabinet on MFn issue recently has proposed that the ministry be allowed to phase out the negative List in three stages on quarterly basis after approval of the cabinet with quarters
ending on June 30, sept 30, and Dec 31 of the year 2012. However, after the intervention of the prime minister in view of the reservation shown by various industries, the list of items was later increased from 636 to over 1,200. But the cabinet approved the list with the phase out period proposed by the ministry which was another objectionable matter for the concerned sectors. the ministry earlier had proposed 636 items including food and agriculture (16), mineral (3), chemical (4), pharmaceutical (32), plastic (74), rubber (24), paper and wood (55), textile and clothing (77), iron and steel (25), and auto sectors (311) in the negative list. the ministry was of the view that for the normalisation of trade, the proposed negative list must be ultimately phased out, and the justification of it is that india specific negative list would be violation of article 17 of the saFta agreement which clearly restricts countries from adopting any measures that diminishes or nullifies any concessions already agreed. expressing serious concerns over the development in islamabad, the representatives of auto, rice, pharma, horticulture industries and others said that their sectors would face severe damages if the
list was phase out by the end of this year. a representative of Pharmaceutical industry said that the industry was taken on board while deciding about the phase out plan. the short cut plan and haste in granting MFn status to Delhi would badly damage the national interest, he added. the rice exporters have also shown serious concerns as the product, despite the proposal made to keep all kinds of rice in the negative list, was excluded from the list posting a threat to growers and exporters. the cheaper rice of india would be flooded in the domestic market if safeguarding measure were taken by the government, a member of Rice exporters association of Pakistan said. Waheed ahmed, leading fruit exporter of the country said that though the fruit and vegetable sector was in favour of trade liberalisation and had only proposed few items to be banned for imports from india. But the ministry has excluded all items of the sector from the list without consulting the concerned exporters and their association PFVa. Besides, the country’s products have been facing the issue of non tariff Barriers (ntBs) while exporting them to india. ntBs were also yet to be removed at the indian ports.
akistan state Oil (PsO) has played down the impression in foreign media that it was going to import jet fuel from international sources to restore supply to north atlantic treaty Organisation (natO) in afghanistan. as the supply from one of the major refineries in the country is scheduled to be shut down for maintenance during the next few weeks, PsO was going to import the jet fuel in order meet the shortages and domestic demand. Foreign media recently peddled that the company was seeking jet fuel imports for the first time since november, in a sign that supplies to natO in the neighbouring country afghanistan might resume in the coming months. PsO through a floated tender was seeking one 25,000-tonne cargo of jet fuel each in april and May this year, with an option for taking an additional cargo in the May-June period. the company had halted the fuel supply to the international organisation soon after the natO’s air strike on Pakistani army personnel at salala Check post in november last year following the closure of key supplies route to natO forces. according to the report PsO usually buys one or two 200,000-barrel cargoes of aviation fuel each month in the international market and supplies three cargoes of jet fuel every two months to natO forces, which are trucked to afghanistan. However, in reply to a numbers of queries forwarded by Profit, the official sources at PsO said, “the recent jet fuel tender floated by PsO pertains to only domestic use. One of the major refineries is scheduled for maintenance in the coming weeks. to ensure that there is no product shortage due to the maintenance and the shut down of the local refinery, PsO is seeking jet fuel from international sources. therefore the assumption that the tender is for natO forces is incorrect.” in reply to a query as to whether PsO was restoring the fuel supply to natO, the country’s largest fuel retailer claimed, “it is the Government of Pakistan, which is the sole decision maker regarding restoration of product supply to afghanistan. PsO has no role in the decision making process and will comply with government’s decisions and policies”. the oil marketing company also played down the impression that it was earlier supplying the fuel to natO saying that ”PsO only exports jet fuel to afghanistan as a country not to any specific organisation.” to another question, they said POL supplies to afghanistan were halted inline with the border closure imposed by islamabad after the incident at salala check post on november 26, 2011.
Subsidies, populous uplift plans to widen budget deficit beyond 6pc in ‘pre-election’ year of FY12 Govt plans to issue SPOs for state-owned oil firms to bridge fiscal gap g Revenues to go to debt servising as only bank borrowings amount to Rs818.505 during July-Feb 17 g Development expenditure up by 11 per cent YoY during July-Dec FY12 g
KARACHI
W
ISMAIL DILAWAR
HiLe the resource-constrained federal government’s longstanding plans to offload its stake in highly-profitable oil companies seem far from materialization, the economic observers foresee the fiscal deficit widening beyond six per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the end of FY2011-2012, a pre-election year. the cash-strapped government, however, is yet to take concrete steps on its last year’s plan to issue secondary Public Offerings (sPOs) for the state-owned oil firms to bridge the fiscal gap. the democratically-elected PPP-led coalition government is believed to be, nat-
urally, tending to spend more on the public sector development front to take political mileage on the eve of general election expected to be held in March next year. “Given 2012 a pre-election year with more expenditure to be incurred on account of subsidies and populous development plans of the government,” viewed khurram schehzad, Head of Research at investCap. With much of the government’s revenues being eaten up by the servicing of domestic debts, of which only bank borrowings were calculated by the sBP at Rs818.505 billion during July-Feb 17, the development expenditure registered a growth of 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY) during the first half of current fiscal year, July-Dec FY12. the analyst said keeping 1H fiscal deficit in perspective, the country’s annu-
alized fiscal deficit should settle around five per cent of the GDP. “However, it is bound to stretch beyond 6 per cent at least,” he warned. Like india, the economic managers in Pakistan are also thinking of bridging this deficit through the sale of government’s stake in the oil companies, but have so far not been able to take practical steps. “Gov’t of Pakistan… has also planned sPOs since last year… however, no concrete development has taken place by far,” said khurram. analysing latest data of the Ministry of Finance on fiscal deficit for the period of 1HFY12, the analyst said the fiscal gap though contracted in 1HFY12, was set to go beyond six per cent in FY12. as per the latest fiscal update, encouragingly, total revenues of the country
stood at Rs1.14 trillion, showing a growth of 15 per cent YoY during 1HFY12, while total expenditures went up at a slightly lower pace of 13 per cent YoY during the same period, totaling Rs1.67 trillion, he said. “Resultantly, the total budget deficit stood at 2.5 per cent of GDP (or Rs533 billion) as against 2.3 per cent (Rs490 billion) recorded in 1HFY11.” He said dip in the second quarter of FY12’s deficit was almost flat both QoQ and YoY basis at 1.3 per cent of the GDP. “the contraction in the budget deficit on YoY basis was primarily due to exclusion of the one-time circular debt-related tFC swap that was issued to banks in 2QFY12 for compensating energy sector companies against their ever-mounting payables and receivables,” khurram said. the term Finance Certificates (tFCs)
worth Rs391 billion were converted into Pakistan investment Bonds and Market treasury Bills amid non-servicing. thus, had these Rs391 billion been included, the budget deficit would have shot up to Rs923 billion, that accounts for 4.4 per cent of GDP. the analyst said the creation of a special Purpose Vehicle of Power Holding Company Limited saved the government this time around as another tFC of Rs136 billion was already transferred to PHCL. the country’s tax revenues, he said, had shown a solid growth of 25 per cent YoY during the fist half, most of which was recorded during the second quarter. “the Federal Board of Revenue’s huntdown to increase tax revenues by fetching more taxpayers into the net seems to have yielded results as the direct tax portion has improved to 34 per cent in the tax revenue basket, from 31 per cent in the last quarter,” he said. On the other hand, the government’s total expenditures were escalated mainly through the duo of interest repayment, on mounting government debt, and defence operations, making up to 46 per cent of the total current expenditure (48 per cent in 2Q). khurram said rising portions of deficit financing from the domestic sources had jacked up the government’s debt servicing cost, accumulating to 94 per cent of the total financing, which was being locked in at higher domestic interest rates compared to external financing.
PRO 01-03-2012_Layout 1 3/1/2012 4:06 AM Page 2
02
Thursday, 01 March, 2012
news
Textile industry should tap Russian, CAR markets KARACHI
P
JAVED MAHMOOD
akistani textile manufacturers and exporters should explore markets in Russia and Central asian Republics with the aim to enhance exports and to raise foreign exchange. Russia’s imports alone are worth about $70 billion textile products a year and Pakistan’s textile exports to Russia are extremely low, at just $100 million dollars, said Farooq afzal, a textile exporter and Chairman, PakRussia Business Council. Pakistan is one of the few champions of textile exports, but country’s share in Russian markets was insignificant. Besides focusing on markets in europe and america, the textile producers and exporters should penetrate in Russian market that was spending $70 billion a year on textile imports, he said. He also pointed out that kazakhstan, turkmenistan and Ukraine were also major markets for the exports of textile products. “i firmly believe that turkmenistan and kazakhstan are the fu-
ture Dubai and Qatar and Pakistani exporters must explore markets in these countries,” he said. Farooq afzal said that the government should disengage the Pakistani economic ministers and commercial counselors from the foreign missions and appoint their local experts having strong connections in their business community. He cited
the example of Bangladesh that engaged a few american experts of textile marketing, who ultimately made Bangladesh one of the leading textile exporting countries in few years. He regretted that most of the economic ministers and commercial attaches are appointed in the foreign missions on “favouritism” and show least interest in working for the cause
of the country and remain busy in pursuing their personal or vested interests. Farooq afzal also demanded of the government to impose gradual ban on the export of raw cotton, yarn and fabrics to promote the manufacturing and exports of value added textile products. Pakistani textile industry needs 16-17 million bales of raw cotton a year to meet export orders, but the country produces about 14 million bales and the shortfall is met through import of cotton. He said that most of the cotton is consumed by the yarn and fabrics exporters. He said that to promote value addition in textile sector, the government would have to eliminate export of yarn and fabrics, in phases. the incentives that are being given to yarn and fabrics manufacturers and exporters, should be diverted towards those who are exporting high value added textile products, he added.Value addition in textile, he said, would enhance exports, generate more foreign exchange, increase employment and enable Pakistan to get rid of iMF and the World Bank, he said.
KSE contradicts official figures for Pakistan’s GDP, says actual amounts to $300bn KARACHI
t
STAFF REPORT
He actual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Pakistan is nearer to $300 billion and not $210 billion, as is shown officially. and, if the ailing economy of the troubled Pakistan is assumed to grow by 3 per cent per year by 2015 the size of the actual GDP would likely to set between $ 350 and $ 375 billion. this was stated by Managing Director kse nadeem naqvi while briefing the visiting V. shankar, Member of the Board, standard Chartered Bank PLC and CeO europe, Middle east, africa and americas here at karachi stock exchange (kse) on Wednesday. “Using conservative estimates, 50 per cent of the economy is in the undocumented sector,” naqvi said adding that further estimation showed that the per capita income of top 10 per cent of households in Pakistan was near $5,000 versus national per capita income of $1,190. “this represents a significant potential mar-
ket for investment and financial services,” the MD added. also, naqvi highlighted the areas where kse and sCBPL could cooperate that, he said, include investor awareness generation, attracting non-Resident Pakistanis (nRPs) to the capital market and helping private companies list on the exchange. earlier, shankar, accompanied by Mohsin nathani, Chief executive of standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited (sCBPL) and senior members of his management team, rang the “Opening Bell” of the kse in the presence of Chairman kse Muneer kamal, MD nadeem naqvi, DMD kse Haroon askari and directors of the kse Board. On the occasion shankar said there was tremendous opportunity for growth in intra-regional trade for the south asian economies, particularly india and Pakistan. illustrating india-China bilateral trade, he said when sino-indian trade opened up they had to overcome some apprehensions, however, today they were one of the largest trading partners with benefit to both countries. Welcoming the guests, chairman kse
Muneer kamal said Pakistan’s economy was at an inflection point. Despite challenges posed by low tax-to-GDP ratio, power sector difficulties and current account pressure due to demand slowdown in key export markets, Pakistan at present was in a position to repay iMF loans. the foreign exchange reserves, supported by strong remittances by overseas Pakistanis, were in a much healthier position than at the height of global financial crisis in late 2008. While debt servicing burden had risen, it should be viewed in the global context and Pakistan’s total debt-toGDP ratio of 64 per cent was far lower than many euro zone and G-8 economies. a concerted effort to mobilise tax revenue and focus on emerging domestic energy resources such as coal would go a long way in fixing structural deficiencies causing large budget deficits. kamal highlighted that economic growth can be further accelerated with growing intra-regional trade in the sub-continent. He pointed out that while intraregional trade in east asia was 23 per cent of GDP, it was only 1 per cent of the GDP in south asia.
LPG price touches record high again LAHORE IMRAN ADNAN
iQUeFieD petroleum gas (LPG) prices in international markets have touched a new record high as liquid gas fuel price has settled at Rs1,210 per tonne for March contracts. LPG sector stakeholders believe that LPG price in local markets could climb up to Rs160 per kilogram if local producers try to match the contract price. the saudi aramco contract price (CP) for March touched a historic high of $1,230 for Propane and $1,180 for Butane. LPG experts calculate that the applicable price in Pakistan – on 40:60 ratio of propane to butane – will be $1,210 per tonne. speaking to Pakistan today, LPG association of Pakistan (LPGaP) spokesman Belal Jabbar said, “the March CP has increased by $182 per tonne from that of February and represents a new record for the
L
saudi price benchmark. the increase is attributable to continuing tensions in the Persian Gulf and a surge in demand from Japan.” He pointed out that on February 27, the Lahore High Court had suspended the imposition of Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) on LPG, which had been implemented on local production to forcefully equate its price with that of imports. in a welcoming gesture, marketing companies immediately slashed their prices by Rs120 per cylinder and retail prices fell to as low as Rs130 per kilogram. However, he indicated that the unprecedented increase in saudi aramco contract price might once again swell LPG prices in domestic markets as it was being anticipated that local producers would try to match the price increase. “We hope producers will be mindful of this unprecedented hike and price their product with a view to ensuring product affordability,” Belal
underscored. Responding to a question, LPGaP spokesman said that state-owned LPG producers had 65 per cent share in local LPG production. “if the government decide to match new contract price domestic and commercial cylinder prices could jump up by Rs1,532 to Rs1,880 and Rs5,902 to Rs7,264, respectively. in February, OGDCL commenced production of 130 Mt per day from its kunnar Pasaki Field, increasing the country’s daily output by 12 per cent to 1,150 tons. although the additional production succeeded in displacing costlier imports, which remained zero in February, smuggled and under invoiced LPG from iran continued unabated. “in view of the additional production, zero imports and a record high saudi aramco CP, LPG sector expects producers will refrain from increasing their prices, which will allow retail prices to remain stable at Rs130 per kilo” said Belal.
Govt mulls over de-linking LPG prices from Aramco ISLAMABAD: Government is again thinking to delink Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices from the saudi aramco Contract Prices (CP) as linking of locally produced LPG with international price is helping the cartels. special assistant to Prime Minister on Petroleum Dr asim Hussain while addressing an annual general meeting of LPG distributors association on Wednesday said the government is going to delink LPG prices with saudi aramco Contract Prices (CP) to benefit the consumers. He said the government is pursuing efforts to eliminate cartels in LPG business and is encouraging fair competition. the government had linked LPG prices with the saudi aramco, last year, claiming that it would help increase the LPG imports which were successfully hindered by local producers by reducing prices. However, the industry had opposed the move saying that the government was trying to give undue favour to public sector company’s reentry in the LPG marketing business. During the last few months very few quantity of LPG was imported even though the government had made it mandatory for all marketing companies to import at least 20 per cent of their quota. AMER SIAL
ECC nod to be obtained for fast track development of hydropower projects ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power syed naveed Qamar said on Wednesday said that a simplified framework for fast track development of private sector hydropower projects has been prepared which would be submitted for the approved of economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet. He said this while chairing the Board of Private Power and infrastructure Board (PPiB). He said the framework has been developed in consultation with all provinces and aJk. it provides three modes for project processing, including processing of sites through international Competitive Bidding (iCB) where the feasibility study and detailed engineering and design have been completed; advertisement for sites where no detailed engineering and design has been completed and raw site proposals where no feasibility study has been completed. STAFF REPORT
CCP issues show cause notices to National Police Foundation, Tri-Star Cable Network ISLAMABAD: Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) on Wednesday issued show cause notices to the national Police Foundation (nPF) and tri-star Cable tV network for, prima facie, entering into an exclusive agreement prohibited under the Competition act, 2010. a statement issued by CCP said it received a formal Complaint from the nayatel Limited and informal complaints from the residents of nPF that a ten-year agreement took place between nPF and tri-star Cable tV network on 27 november 2008, granted exclusive right to company in respect of multi-channel cable tV and data transmission services in sector e-11 owned by nPF. this agreement, the complaints said, restricted consumers from getting service from other operators of choice in the relevant area. STAFF REPORT
KCCI shows concern over unchanged mode of FBR KARACHI: karachi Chamber of Commerce and industry (kCCi) has taken strong exception to the arbitrary imposition of the condition to provide CniC/ntn for the sales conducted to the unregistered persons notified through sRO nO.191 (i) 2012 dated 23rd February, 2012. Despite the objections raised by kCCi through a number of communications and views conveyed to the Chairman, FBR regarding unacceptability of draft sRO, FBR proceeded to issue sRO 191, making it mandatory to provide CniC/ntn of unregistered buyers in the sales tax returns filed by the registered persons from March 2012. kCCi has been overwhelmed by representations from all sectors of the business community, including traders, importers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers and industrialists, who have expressed deep resentment over imposition of such draconian measures without consulting the representative bodies of tax payers, including kCCi. STAFF REPORT
Oil bomb to hit economy hard: LCCI LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and industry Wednesday urged the government to withdraw oil price hike decision as the ‘oil shock’ is bound to hit economy and masses alike. in a statement issued here Wednesday, the LCCi President irfan Qaiser sheikh said that petroleum prices were already at the highest level and any further increase would prove to be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. the LCCi President said that a comparison between the international oil prices and local prices is enough to make the point that the local prices have registered more than 50 per cent increase in the last two years in comparison with the global rates. therefore, he said, that the government has no justification to make any increase in POL prices. irfan Qaiser sheikh said that the increase would hit all the sectors of the economy that would jack up the inflation and resultant hike in markup rates and disturb the entire economic cycle. STAFF REPORT
PRO 01-03-2012_Layout 1 3/1/2012 4:07 AM Page 3
Thursday, 01 March, 2012
03
news
Iran begins 70mw power supply ISLAMABAD
a
AMER SIAL
FteR enhancing the capacity of the existing transmission line, iran has increased power supply up to 70 MW to Pakistan from February 26, which is being supplied to the Makran Division in Balochistan. a spokesman for the Ministry of Water and Power said that the enhancement in power supply
from iran has made the coastal division of the Balochistan totally load shedding free areas. the import of 70 MW will help meet requirements for the next five years electricity demand of the division. earlier, Pakistan was getting only 35 MW from iran. all the power, coming from iran is being supplied to the Makran division include Gwadar port, Gwadar district, turbat, Panjgur, Mand and other areas of the division. the overall demand of the Makran di-
vision is 55 MW in summer and 40 MW in winter season. Previously there was load shedding of 10 to 12 hours in all the areas of the division to keep intact the system. all the areas now are load shedding free in the Division. He said that two separate projects of importing 1000 MW and 100 MW from iran were at the final stage of negotiations and construction of transmission lines would be started immediately after the finalisation of tariff.
Meanwhile in a statement Minister for Water and Power syed naveed Qamar has said that the government was taking all steps to facilitate the people of Balochistan and special efforts were made to upgrade the transmission network within shortest possible time. He said that industrial, commercial and domestic consumers of the area will get benefit from this power and there will be also economic development there.
Bulls stampede after tax reforms implementation, index up 138pts
W
Company
Open
High
Low
Close
Change
Nestle PakistanXD Wyeth Pak Limited Colgate Palmolive Shezan Inter. Atlas Battery Ltd.
3340.39 763.33 784.80 112.16 182.05
3507.40 780.00 800.00 117.76 187.00
3364.99 768.00 755.00 114.90 183.90
3500.46 779.96 797.25 117.75 186.99
160.07 652 16.63 309 12.45 820 5.59 1,300 4.94 1,813
Turnover
Major Losers Bata (Pak) Ltd. Service Industries MCB Bank Ltd Biafo Ind. Pak Gum & Chemicals
679.23 198.90 179.67 59.05 53.11
679.98 197.98 181.47 56.10 50.51
646.00 193.00 176.00 56.10 50.46
8.90 10.09 53.19 4.54 2.92
7.93 9.52 51.10 4.18 2.50
8.90 9.58 51.39 4.45 2.70
649.59 193.89 176.62 56.10 50.46
-29.64 255 -5.01 592 -3.05 623,727 -2.95 1,005 -2.65 1,107
Volume Leaders Lotte PakPTA Jah.Sidd. Co. National Bank Fauji Cement TRG Pakistan Ltd.
7.90 10.01 52.11 4.20 2.48
1.00 25,728,451 -0.43 12,986,149 -0.72 10,914,841 0.25 10,830,303 0.22 9,478,634
Interbank Rates
KARACHI STAFF REPORT
eDnesDaY, last trading day of February, saw a bullish trend throughout the day as confirmation by the securities and exchange Commission of Pakistan of the implementation of the proposed tax reforms on Capital Gains tax (CGt) helped the investors’ sentiments falling in the positive zone. “a meeting of tax Reform Coordination Group decided for minimum 120 day holding period with a presidential order on an ordinance,” viewed ahsan Mehanti, a director at arif Habib securities adding “Pakistan stocks closed bullish led by oil and fertilizer stocks amid higher trades after apex regulator confirmed reformed CGt regime implementation from april1”. after witnessing a slight lose of 4.44 points a day earlier, the benchmark kse 100-share index gained 138.66 points to close at 12,877.88 points against 12,739.22 points of on tuesday. the index hit the intraday high of 12,912.96 points and then plunged to the intraday low of
Major Gainers
US Dollar UK Pound Japanese Yen Euro
12,739.22 points. total traded shares at the ready counter were counted at 206.475 million shares against 217.592 million shares of the previous day. the trading value upped to Rs6.636 billion from tuesday’s Rs6.209 billion. the market capitalisation marked a slight gain and closed at Rs3.338 trillion against Rs3.316 trillion of the previous session. Of the total 359 scrips traded, 140 gained, 153 lost while 66 remained unchanged. the turnover in the future contracts increased to 14.102 million shares compared to 12.880 million shares of last trading day.
Lotte PakPta as a volume leader of the day counted its traded shares at 25.728 million each priced at Rs7.90 in the opening and Rs8.90 in the closing. “Bullish sentiments prevailed throughout the trading session and the index managed to close on its highs amid higher global commodities, easing political outlook and institutional consolidation across stocks by retail and institutional investors,” Mehanti said. the analyst said strong earnings announcements in banks, oil and fertiliser sector played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments post major announcements at kse.
90.9570 144.8945 1.1289 122.4282
Buy
Sell
US Dollar
90.60
91.10
Euro
121.31
122.35
Great Britain Pound
143.84
144.99
Japanese Yen
1.1196
1.1282
Canadian Dollar
91.00
92.35
Hong Kong Dollar
11.49
11.73
UAE Dirham
24.63
24.79
Saudi Riyal
24.13
24.26
Australian Dollar
97.36
99.69
CORPORATE CORNER Etihad Airways, Cinnabon to fly winners to UAE LAHORE: etihad airways, the national airline of the United arab emirates, and Cinnabon Pakistan are giving away a trip for two to the Uae. the winner of the promotion, running throughout March, will receive two return Coral economy class tickets from any of the airline’s four destinations in Pakistan - karachi, Lahore, islamabad and Peshawar - to abu Dhabi, as well as other exciting prizes from both etihad airways and Cinnabon including vouchers and gift hampers. Cinnabon customers are automatically entered into a lucky dip draw when purchasing coffee or baked rolls from any of this famous american baked goods chain’s outlets in Pakistan. PRESS RELEASE
Faysal Bank signs health agreement with Allianz EFU KARACHI: Faysal Bank Limited (FBL) has entered into a strategic partnership with allianz eFU Health insurance Limited (allianz eFU) for their upcoming product Faysal aik Faisla Health Plan. the agreement signing ceremony took place at Faysal House recently. Mr aarij ali, Head Retail Banking FBL and Mr. taher G sachak, – Vice Chairman - allianz eFU, signed the agreement. among representation ofboth organisations, Mr Mir nejib Rehman - Head Wealth Management and e-Banking FBL, Mr ahmed Hemani – Head Bancassurance, investment Products and Channel Management FBL and kamran ansari, Chief Operating Officer - allianz eFU were also present. PRESS RELEASE
Megatech Pakistan to lead textile exhibition LAHORE: the 10th edition of the international Machinery exhibition of Garment and textile technology – MeGateCH Pakistan 2012, is all set to lead to the textile exhibition season of 2012. the exhibition will be an excellent display of international machinery from over 15 countries for our textile industry to reach export markets with the value added products from 1st – 3rd March, 2012 at the expo Centre Lahore. the
exhibition will also provide investors and decision makers a highly focused and interactive environment where they will get an opportunity to meet their counterparts. the show is extensively supported by Ministry of textile industry, Board of investment, engineering Development Board and several textile related trade associations. PRESS RELEASE
University of Lahore holds its convocation
Humayun Bashir gets elected as President OICCI KARACHI: Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, iBM has been elected as the President of Overseas investors Chamber of Commerce and industry (OiCCi) for the 2012 term. this was announced at the 152nd annual General Meeting of the OiCCi held on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Mr asif Jooma, Managing Director, abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited was elected as the Vice President. the other members of the Managing Committee elected for the 2012 term are: Mr asad s Jafar (Philips electrical industries of Pakistan Limited), Mr azhar ali syed (tetra Pak Pakistan Limited), Mr irfan siddiqui (Meezan Bank Limited), Mr kimihide ando (Mitsubishi Corporation), Mr M asif saad (Lotte Pakistan Pta Limited), Mr Mohammad Zubair (Chevron Pakistan Limited), Mr sarim sheikh (shell Pakistan Limited) and Ms Zehra naqvi (aCe insurance Limited). PRESS RELEASE
Khushhalibank, IBA announce winners of ISERVE 2012 KARACHI: khushhalibank and iBa entrepreneurship society (iBaes) recently announced winners at the finale of iseRVe 2012 - a unique social enterprise competition aimed at providing students a platform to contribute significantly towards the community in the form of sustainable social ideas and creating a new generation of viable social ventures. the finale was held at iBa Main Campus, where top six short listed teams, from a pool of 28 entries, presented their ideas. M Zafar ahmed siddiqui, Director-Centre for entrepreneurial Development (CeD), iBa, kindly consented to be the chief guest at the ceremony. the winner was awarded Rs500,000 with the first runner-up and second runner-up receiving Rs300,000 and Rs200,000, respectively. PRESS RELEASE
LAHORE: the latest Convocation of students from the University of Lahore was overseen by the guest of honour, Mr sardar Mohammed Latif khosa, the Governor of Punjab. He congratulated the students on their brilliant performance and hard work for accomplishing so much. He also highlighted the achievement of the young female students, who this year outnumbered the male students. the Governor called for their greater participation in national life, saying the empowerment of women is a driver for development and achievement. PRESS RELEASE
IBA, NBP organise INFER 2012 KARACHI: iBa economics and Finance Clubs along with nBP as sponsor are organising the competition for all those enlightened souls that are ready to battle out the test of intellect and creative thinking in the arena of economics and finance. iBa is bringing forth yet another edition of inFeR, following the tremendous success of inFeR 2011. the second chapter unveils itself as a three day competition centric workshop beginning March 30, 2012 embedded with a plethora of rounds designed to challenge the abilities of the selected 150 participants. the competition comprises of two phases: Registration and the three-day competition, each with a hierarchy of stages. Due to competition based nature of the rounds, there will be continuous short listing of the teams through each league of the competition. PRESS RELEASE
flects strong growth in all areas of the Bank’s operations. Deposits grew by 21.6 per cent to close at Rs99,734m (2010 : Rs82,016m) whereas the net advances as at December 31, 2011 amounted to Rs65,340m up by 19.5 per cent from 2010 levels. Resultantly the net assets closed at Rs10 977m thus translating a growth of 23.09 per cent from 2010 levels. the bank’s after tax profit jumped to Rs784m, up from Rs125m, primarily due to a solid growth in net interest income of 27.9 per cent, (up from Rs3.00bn to Rs3.89bn) and increase in noninterest income by 59.2 per cent (up from Rs1.22bn to Rs1.95bn). Resultantly the Bank’s ePs went up to Re 0.96 from Re 0.17. PRESS RELEASE
SNGPL earns over Rs1b profit before tax for half year LAHORE: snGPL earned Rs1,016 million profit before tax as compared to Rs684 million in the corresponding period last. the Profit after tax has also increased to Rs648 million as against Rs468 million Profit after tax during the six months of last year. as a result of increase in earning, the earnings per share of the company increased to Rs1.12 as against Re0.81 in the same period last year. the Board of Directors of the company approved the un-audited half yearly/second quarter accounts for the period ended December 31, 2011 during a meeting held in Lahore. the gas sales if the Company approved the un-audited half yearly /second quarter accounts for the period ended December 31, 2011 during a meeting held in Lahore. the gas sales of the company in terms of volume during the period was 292, 466 MMCF as against 292,997 during the same period early last year. PRESS RELEASE
Soneri Bank announces results for 2011 LAHORE: soneri Bank Limited has announced its financial results for the year 2011. the Chairman of the Bank, Mr alauddin J Feerasta, presided over the Board that met in Lahore on 28 February, 2012. the result re-
KARACHI: Ch Ahmad Mukhtar, Defence Minister, inaugurating Traveller’s Book Club and Book Shop at Jinnah International Airport Karachi. Ms Nargis Sethri, Secretary Defence, is also seen in the picture. PRESS RELEASE