INTERVIEW

Wednesday, 1 August, 2012

Red Devils set to scoreanother late winnerManchester United eyes over

$300m in Wall Street IPO

NEW YORK

AGENCIES

Popular British football (soccer) teamManchester United announced Mondaythat it hopes to earn over $300 million inits proposed IPO on Wall Street. The teamwill put $16.7 million on market, $8.3million in public shares and $8.3 millionbelonging to the club owner, Americanbusinessman Malcolm Glazer. The shareswill be sold at $16 and $20, raising atarget amount of around $300.6 million.Taking into account the 2.5 millionadditional shares that may be offeredthrough overallotment options and themaximum price per share, the team couldstand to raise up to $383 million. Theopening date for the public offering,initially announced in July, has not yetbeen set. The club had renounced itsprevious initial public offering, slated forthe Singapore market, in a region wherethere is an abundance of liquidity and astrong fan base. Among the most popularteams in the world, Manchester Unitedposted a profit of $19.7 million in 2011,with total revenues at $518.5 million.

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

TAG Heuer, a globally acclaimed Swissbrand producing high-end luxury watchessince 1860 especially in the field of chrono-graphs and ultimate precision, is fast ex-panding and therefore clinching newmilestones in Pakistan which the companyofficials believe is a small but evolvingmarket for its high quality products.

Franck Christophe Dardenne, GeneralManager of LVMH Watch & JewelleryIndia, was in recent weeks invited to Pak-istan to conduct the business review meet-ings and explore the growth opportunitiesfor TAG Heuer in Pakistan, a developingeconomy and an emerging market for in-ternationally recognized brands.

Pakistan Today had had an exclusiveinterview with Franck who has been affili-ated with Tag Heuer from over a decadehaving worked first in the company’s headquarter in Switzerland, then in Japan. Nowhe has been appointed in India as a re-gional head.

To Franck, Pakistan is a country ofgreat potential for Tag Heuer’s watchesthe current annual selling turnover ofwhich stands at 1000 pieces. Thisturnover is remarkable if viewed in thebackdrop of sky-high prices of TagHeuer’s luxury watches the retail prices ofwhich, according to Franck, range fromRs 120,000 to Rs 250,000.

“The average price of Tag Heuer’swatches is Rs 200,000 plus,” Azam added.

Franck was impressed with the newshopping malls being coming into exis-tence in Pakistan specially the DolmenMall. “You have new shopping malls tocome in like go to the Dolmen Mall. So wesee a gradual step-by-step development inour products sale.”

“Yeah for sure” Franck replied whenasked if his company had a plan to expandits business network in Pakistan. “Wewould at least double it in next three years,because we see that it would be a significanteconomy. So we are seeking now to take aposition here,” the general manager said.

“Besides this, the customers (here) likeus,” he added.

Urging the open-minded Pakistanicustomers to buy more and more of TagHeuer products, Franck said his side wasengaged in Pakistan in a transparent man-ner expecting greater returns.

“We import everything cleanly and weare the only key luxury watches brandtoday. We just have chosen to work in suchan open-minded, clean and efficient way.

And doing so we really expect a greatreturn on this because we treat Pakistanicustomers with highest respect,” he said.

Franck places Pakistani market on sec-ond in the seven-country South Asian re-gion after India which has one of theworld’s largest consumer bases. He saidTag Heuer had 24 points of sales in Pak-istan, five in Sri Lanka and two in Nepal.

“The worth of Pakistan is much morehigher that you can’t compare it withBangladesh, Nepal or other regional coun-

tries,” he said.Pakistan, he said, is currently 10 per-

cent of India in terms of Tag Heuer’s sell.“In next three years it should be about 15to 20 percent.”

Terming Pakistan a “small” but “evolv-ing” market where Franck said all his sidehad to do was to find out new selling out-lets for its watches.

This part of the world Franck said wasproviding a unique chance for Tag Heuerbecause many Pakistanis who study andtravel abroad may be the potential buyersof his quality products.

Franck sees no security issue fro for-eign businesses like his in Pakistan. Hesaid some of the areas may be sensitive interms of law and order, but taking a bigpicture of security situation in Pakistan “Inever felt insecure here”.

“Image of the country is the worst butI hope your country would be safer andsafer,” he said.

To a question on what Tag Heuer isplugging into the local economy, hereplied: “We put on sale what we havehere through our partners (Speed (Pvt)Limited) and the international brandwas behind”.

A rough estimate, he said, may be$300,000 a year his company would, ap-proximately, be investing in Pakistan.“This is for strengthening our presence andto make the Tag Heuer a successful brandin the local market”.

On having a Pakistani celebrity as TagHeuer’s brand ambassador, Franck saidfor the time being his side had no specificplans to go for an icon in Pakistan wherehis customers had an international mind-set and were well acquainted with TagHeuer’s Bollywood and Hollywood iconsShah Rukh Khan and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Having partnered with WTA tennischampion Maria Sharapova and LPGAstar Suzann Pettersen, Tag Heuer, inMarch this year, declared Cameron Diazas its new ambassador for its new LINKLADY collection.

“At the moment it’s not a priority as weare not in a state where we would want tolocalize this idea. Our current ambassadorsare successful, so there is no specific planto hire a new one,” Franck explained.

Pertinent would be to mention herethat Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi ispresently working as a brand ambassadorof Rado, another Swiss manufacturer ofluxury watches.

Asked if his company was facing any

regulatory challenges in the local market,Franck, being not directly engaged in thelocal market, referred the question to YaserAzam, senior brand manager of Speed(Pvt.) Ltd, Tag Heuer’s distributors in Pak-istan, who said the overall business condi-tions in Pakistan were quite favorable forSwiss watch industry.

“It’s not a mass market. It’s a very neshmarket, so technically speaking there areno any hindrances or problems. And that’swhy we can see the growth also in the localmarket,” said Azam.

About the impact of global recessionon Tag Heuer’s business in Pakistan,Franck replied in negative. “Not at all, be-cause the attention which was given towatches was so small that we are not feel-ing influenced by the macroeconomicmeltdown. We are small and in countrieslike Pakistan we are educating the cus-tomers on quality watches.”

“We have a mission to share that whatis the quality of Swiss watches,” said theSwiss official.

TAG Heuer, which Franck said standsthe fourth luxury watches firm among itsglobal competitors, wasfounded in Saint-Imier in 1860 by Edouard Heuer, sincethen it has set many major milestones ofhigh-end watchmaking.

Today, one of the largest and most de-sired brands in the luxury watch industry,the Swiss legend draws upon its active en-gagement in the world of sports to createthe most accurate timing instruments andwatches in the world.

‘Pakistan is an evolving market for int’l luxury brands’

Raja reconstitutes ECC, ECNEC

The DOC sits atop 13-pronged revamp

ISLAMABAD

APP

PRIME Minister Raja PervezAsharaf has reconstituted athirteen (13) member Eco-nomic Coordination Commit-tee of the Cabinet (ECC) with

Federal Minister for Finance Dr.AbdulHafeez Shaikh as its Chairman.

According to a Notification of theCabinet Secretariat, Deputy PrimeMinister/Senior Minister for Indus-tries, Ministers for Commerce, Com-munications,Law and Justice,NationalFood Security of Research , Port andShipping ,Privatization Production,Railways, Science and Techonolgy,Textile Industry and Water and Powerwould be the members of the newlyconstituted Committee.

The Notification further said thatMinister for Information and Broad-casting, Advisor to the Prime Ministeron Petroleum and Natural Resources,Minister of State for Production,Deputy Chairman Planning Commis-sion , Governor State Bank of Pak-istan, Chairman Securities andExchange Commission of Pakistan ,Chairman Board of Investment, Spe-cial Assistant to Prime Minister onWater resources and Agriculture, Sec-retary, Commerce Division, SecretaryCommunication Division, and Secre-tary Economic Affairs Division wouldbe invited by special invitation for allitems of the agenda.

Meanwhile in an another Notifica-tion issued by the Cabinet Secre-tariat/Cabinet Division, PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashraf has alsoreconstituted the eight (8) members

Executive Committee of National Eco-nomic Council (ECNEC) with FederalMinister for Finance and EconomicAffairs, Dr.Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as itsChairman.

The other members of the ECNECwould be Dr.Arbab Alamgir KhanMinister for Communication, MirChangez Khan Jamali ,Minister forScience and Technology, Ch.AhmadMukhtar ,Minister for Water andPower, Minister for finance Govern-ment of Balochista Representative ofBalochistan on NEC, Senior Ministerfor Planning and Development andPower ,Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on NEC, SenatorMuhammad Ishaq Dar Representativeof Punjab on NEC, and Hussain MirzaRepresentative of Sindh on NEC.

According to the notification, thePrime Minister has also directed

that following officials on FederalGovernment and Provincial Govern-ments would attend the meeting of theECNEC by Special invitation ,for allitems of the agenda.

FeDeRAL GoveRnMent:

1 Mir Israrullah Zehri Minister for NationalFood Security and Research.

2 End.Shaukatullah Minister of State for Fron-tier Region.

3 Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilou Ministerfor Railways.

4 Makhdoom Shahbuddin Ministerfor Textile Industry.

5 Mir Hazar KhanBijarani,Minister for InterProvincial Coordination.

6 Deputy Chairman Plan-ning Commission.

7 Secretary Economic Affairs Division.8 Secretary Finance Division.9 Secretary Planning and Development Division.10 Secretary Statistics Division.

PRovInCIAL GoveRnMentS:

11 Chairman Planning and development divi-sion Government of Punjab.

12 Additional Chief Secretary ,Planning andDevelopment department Government ofSindh.

13 Additional Chief Secretary ,Planning andDevelopment department Government ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and

14 Additional Chief Secretary ,Planning andDevelopment department Government ofBalochistan.

Other officers of the Federal and Provincial gov-ernments as well as the governments ofAF&K,Gilgit Baltistan and FATA would be in-vited to the meetings of ECNEC on needbasis, the notification said.

One half of the total members of theECNEC would be the quorum

for its meetings as pro-vided in article 156 (4) ofthe Constitution for themeetings of the Na-tional Economic Council(NEC).

Secretariat assistance tothe ECNEC would be pro-vided by the Cabinet Di-

vision.

Au revoir!Association expresses dismay as govtis all set to phase out CNG sector

ISLAMABAD: The all PakistanCompressed Natural Gas (CNG)Association has expressed its dismay overgovernment’s move to phase out CNGsector form Pakistan. In a statement issuedhere on Tuesday, Pakistan CNGAssociation Central Chairman GhiyasAbdullah Paracha said the investment ofbillions, network, planning, effort of yearsand infrastructure was on stake of fewpersons benefit. He warned the load onhealth budget, foreign reserves, import billwill be lethal for country’s economy if CNGclosed and if it is done then fewindustrialists will be accountable before thenation for their unjust. He went on to saythat the world was giving top priority toCNG fuel for vehicles as it is safer fuel andenvironment friendly fuel as well as themost efficient use of natural gas. ONLINE

Off-takes MoM

Urea up173%, DAP 269% KARACHI: With Kharif season in fullswing, total urea off-take of the countrywitnessed a massive jump of 173%MoM(109%YoY) to stand at 1.02mn tonnesduring the month of June. “This huge off-take of urea is result of aggressive buyingby the dealers in the wake of upward pricereversion expected in coming months,”viewed InvestCap Analyst Hasan Raza. Oncumulative basis, he said, urea off-takeduring 6MCY12 stood at 2.74mn tonnescompared to off-take of 2.67mn tonnesduring same period last year, showing theappreciation of 3%YoY. In total urea off-takes , FFC s contributed 51% posting thesales volumes of 526 kilo tonnescompared to 204 kilo tonnes during lastmonth, Engro off-takes contributed 22%in total off-take posting the volumes of223 kilo tonnes compared to just 64 kilotonnes, FATIMA urea off-takescontributed 12% in total off-takes postingthe volumes of 128 kilo tonnes comparedto just 1.4 kilo tonnes and FFBL urea offtake contributed 6% in total.

Franck Christophe Dardenne, General Manager of LVMH Watch & Jewellery, India.

PRO 07-02-2012_Layout 1 8/1/2012 6:23 AM Page 1

02

Wednesday, 1 August, 2012

Major Gainers

ComPAny oPen hIgh Low CLose ChAnge TURnoveRUnilever Food 2825.00 2966.25 2849.00 2966.25 141.25 220Colgate Palmolive 1135.30 1192.06 1190.00 1192.06 56.76 750UniLever Pak 7728.00 7755.00 7750.00 7755.00 27.00 80Mithchells Fruit 330.94 347.48 315.00 347.48 16.54 2,500Nestle Pakistan Ltd. 4085.42 4100.00 4070.00 4100.00 14.58 1,800

Major LosersAbbott Laboratories 170.17 171.01 164.70 165.95 -4.22 65,000J.D.W.Sugar 106.05 104.00 101.00 102.00 -4.05 2,300Millat Tractors 519.71 521.80 514.05 515.87 -3.84 12,500National Foods 233.69 245.00 223.00 230.01 -3.68 6,600Gillette Pak 59.45 56.50 56.50 56.50 -2.95 500Indus Motor Company 260.00 260.01 256.50 257.12 -2.88 15,700

Volume LeadersArif Habib Corp. 33.70 33.70 32.25 33.00 -0.70 9,741,000Bank Al-Falah 18.89 19.12 18.58 18.81 -0.08 6,221,000D.G.K.Cement 46.32 46.40 45.80 46.21 -0.11 5,731,500National Bank Pak 45.70 46.80 45.81 46.61 0.91 5,403,500Fauji Cement 5.94 6.18 5.94 6.15 0.21 4,928,000

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 94.6713UK Pound 148.5299Japanese Yen 1.2102Euro 116.0860

Dollar EastbUy seLL

US Dollar 94.30 95.10Euro 115.51 116.52Great Britain Pound 147.31 148.55Japanese Yen 1.1976 1.2076Canadian Dollar 93.34 94.63Hong Kong Dollar 12.00 12.17UAE Dirham 25.63 25.82Saudi Riyal 25.13 25.27Australian Dollar 98.39 100.67

Business

KARACHI: Hussain Ali Talib, Mobilink PRManager is presenting gift to lucky winner,Abbas Malik during Mobilink Media Iftar.

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

PAKISTAN’S main stock market closednorthwards on Tuesday. The PakistanStocks closed higher amid institutionalinterest in oversold market. Investorstook positions in stocks across the board

as Pakistan, US sign NATO supply agreement amidhopes for release of $1.12bn payment from USagainst services to coalition forces, analysts said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark100-share index gained 65.46 points, or 0.45percent, to close at 14, 577.00 points on volumeof 77.797 million shares.

The trading volumes at the ready-counterwere recorded lower at 77.797 million sharesagainst 81.835 million shares of the previousday. The trading value down to Rs 3.076 billioncompared to Rs 3.152 billion of the last day ses-sion. The intraday high and low, respec-tively, stood at 14, 598.56 and 14,

511.54 points.He added that the strong earnings outlook,

expected rise in local POL prices and renewedforeign interest in blue chip stocks played thecatalyst’s role in bullish sentiments in stocks atKSE despite concerns for macroeconomic con-ditions and uncertain global markets.

The market capitalisation grew modestlyand increased to Rs 3.724 trillion from Rs 3.707trillion a day earlier. Of the total 284 tradedscrips, 158 gained, 100 lost and 26 finished asunchanged.

The free-float KSE-30 index also gained39.79 points to close at 12, 607.26 points againstthe previous 12, 567.47 points. The KSE all-share index closed with a gained of 46.71 pointsto 10, 264.58 points as against 10, 217.87 points.

Arif Habib Corporation was the day’s vol-ume leader counting its traded shares at 9.741million with the opening and closing ratesstanding at Rs 33.70 and Rs 33.00, followed byBank Al-Falah, D.G.K. Cement, National Bankof Pakistan and Fauji Cement with the turnoverof 6.221 million, 5.731 million, 5.403 million

and 4.928 million shares respectively.On the future market, the turnover re-

mained negative to 7.058 million against7.608 million shares of first working day of

the week Monday.The UniLever Food and Colgate Palmolive,

up Rs 141.25 and Rs 56.76, led highest pricegainers while, Abbott Laboratories and

J.D.W Sugar, down Rs 4.22 and Rs 4.05respectively, led the losers.

Bulls release themselves from shackles ofinsecurity to lift index up 65 points, as Pakistan,US put pen to NATO supply agreement

Fouzia hameed: The bags thatbrought fortuneKARACHI: Pakistan is a country where a major portion ofthe population struggles below the poverty line although aconsiderable amount of those individuals do have brilliantentrepreneurial ideas which unfortunately cannot be realizeddue to lack of financing. Khushhalibank, through its variousMicro Financing programmes in Pakistan has to a large ex-tent catered to the needs of the low income groups who likethe others have dreams and aspirations to be successful forthemselves as well as those around them. One such exampleis of Fouzia Hameed who belongs to an underprivileged fam-ily. She is disabled from both her feet. Her father died some-time back and she is living with her brothers of whom onlyone is employed. It was very difficult for her brother to bearthe family expenses within his meager income. PRESS RELEASE

etihad Airways wins Airline strategy AwardKARACHI: Etihad Airways, the national airline of theUnited Arab Emirates, has won the finance category ofthe Airline Strategy Awards, one of the industry’s mostcoveted awards. The award, announced in front of theworld’s leading airline figures at London’s The Hon-ourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, recognised the strategiccontribution the finance team has made to the success ofEtihad Airways. The award was accepted by JamesRigney, Etihad Airways Chief Financial Officer, who said:Our expert team plays a key role in the business achiev-ing its financial goals, most notably in beating Etihad Air-ways’ break even target in 2011 to record the airline’sfirst ever profit. PRESS RELEASE

samsung announces 2nd quarter resultsLAHORE: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has announced rev-enues of $41.79 Billion on a consolidated basis for the sec-ond quarter ended June 30, 2012. This shows a 21-percentincrease year-on-year in the revenue. For the quarter, thecompany’s consolidated operating profit reached a record US$ 5.90 Billion, representing a 79-percent year-on-year in-crease. Consolidated net profit for the April-June period was$4.55 Billion. Capital expenditure in the first six months wasUS $ 12.29 Billion. Samsung posted solid sales and main-tained its profit in almost all business segments includingVisual Display, Mobile Communications, TelecommunicationSystems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imag-ing; Memory, System LSI and LED, etc. PRESS RELEASE

‘high street’ taking fashion to a higher levelKARACHI: Designer Saima opens the doors of her multibrand store “ high street” for all the fasionistas ofKarachi at 3rd Commercial Lane, Zamzama, D.H.A, offer-ing a wide range of men’s women’s semi-formal, formalm bridal wear. The designer has proved to be creative indesigns and has used colours which will suit all agegroups. With her team of versatile designers she hasstyled beautiful outfits that instantly catch the eyes ofbuyers. Stand out amongst others wearing one of hercreations by looking unique n elegant. She has definitelyput in her best effort and has entered the fashion indus-try with a BANG!. PRESS RELEASE

CORPORATE CORNER

Audi steps on theaccelerator

BERLIN

AGENCIES

Audi, the top-of-the-range carmakerowned by German auto giant Volkswagen,said operating profit acceleratedpowerfully in the first half of the year andstuck to its full-year target. Operatingprofit rose 13.2 percent to 2.9 billion euros($3.6 billion) compared to the same periodin 2011, the firm said, registering sales of25 billion euros, a gain of 16.2 percent.Audi said it delivered 733,237 cars in thefirst half of the year, 12.3 percent morethan it had in the first six months of 2011.Chief financial officer Axel Strotbek saidthe firm was keeping to its goal of anoperating profit at the same level as lastyear “as long as the economic environmentdoes not darken further.” It said it aimedto deliver more than 1.4 million cars forthe first time in the full year.

‘Light at the end oftunnel for Italy, eU’

MILAN

AGENCIES

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti saidTuesday that the end of the tunnel wasin sight for Italy and the EuropeanUnion, after the European Central Bankand eurozone leaders pledged to savethe euro. “We and the rest of Europe aregetting closer to the end of the tunnel.There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” hesaid in an interview with Radio Anch’io,ahead of a meeting in Paris withFrance’s President Francois Hollande.

exide Pak reportshigher profitKARACHI: Exide Pakistan Ltd hasposted a higher profit after tax of Rs184.698 million for the first quarterending June 30, 2012. According tofinancial results of the companydespatched to Karachi Stock Exchangehere Tuesday, the pre-tax profit alsosurged to Rs 281.929 million for theperiod under review against Rs 156.551million last year. APP

$1.12bn woRTh of optimism

LAHORE

APP

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industryhere Tuesday urged the State Bank of Pakistanto bring the mark-up rate down to a single digitin the upcoming monetary policy scheduled forAugust 10.

LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh saidthat priority of the SBP should be the availabil-ity of cheaper money to the business commu-nity to strengthen the process ofindustrialization and arrest the fast wideninggraph of unemployment. In the last two yearsinterest rates in Europe and the United Stateshave been brought down close to zero to savethe economies from collapse, he said, asserting,this is the time that interest rates should bebrought down to single digit to spur growth.

He said that a cut of 50 to 100 basis pointswould not be doing any service to the windlingeconomy. The ongoing economic scenario shows

that there was hardly any time left for economicmanagers of the country and they all should un-derstand gravity of situation that there would beno business community buyer if the interest ratesare kept higher, he added. The LCCI President

said that private sector was the only hope for sal-vaging the country therefore a significant cut incost of doing business is direly needed. Duringlast few years, the private sector had suffered set-back because of higher cost of doing business.

LONDON

AGENCIES

Oil prices were mixed Tuesday before a meetingof the Federal Reserve which could reveal morestimulus measures aimed at boosting the USeconomy, which is also the world’s biggest con-sumer of crude.

Brent North Sea crude for September deliv-ery dipped five cents to $106.15 a barrel in Lon-don midday deals. New York’s main contract,light sweet crude for September, gained 25 centsto $90.03 a barrel. Crude markets were expectingadditional stimulus to be agreed during the two-day US Federal Reserve meeting which starts

Tuesday as well as at a gathering of the EuropeanCentral Bank (ECB) on Thursday, analysts said.

“Market players are holding back ahead ofthe central bank meetings later this week,” saidCommerzbank commodities analyst CarstenFritsch. The Fed gathering comes after the USgovernment last week said that growth in theUnited States — the world’s biggest economy —slowed to 1.5 percent in the second quarter from2.0 percent in the first three months of 2011.

Markets were tempering their optimismabout fresh action with “worries that expectedstimulus from the United States and Europemay fail to lift their economies,” Phillip Futuresstated in a commentary.

Too mAny DARn nUmbeRs!

SBP urged to

reduce mark-up

to single digit

PRO 07-02-2012_Layout 1 8/1/2012 6:23 AM Page 2