Tuesday, 9 October, 2012

ISLAMABAD

APP

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UnitedStates Ms Sherry Rehman said on Mon-day that her country offered one of thebest rate of returns to the business com-panies and that the American companiescould benefit from the liberal businessand investment regime in Pakistan.

She appreciated the idea of bringingthe businesses of the two countries to-gether and expressed hope that the Pak-istan-USA Bilateral Investment Treaty(BIT) would be concluded to the satisfac-tion of both sides.

She was addressing the concludingsession of the two-day US-Pakistan Busi-ness Opportunities Conference held inLondon on Monday.

According to a statement of the BOIissued here today, the conference was co-hosted by the United States Trade Repre-

sentative (USTR) , Embassy of Pakistan,Washington DC, Board of Investment,and Ministry of Commerce, Islamabad on4-5 October 2012 in London.

Ambassador Susman, the US Ambas-sador to the United Kingdom and WajidShamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s Ambassador tothe UK patronized this conference. Theconference was significant as it was thefirst time a bilateral business initiative hasbeen taken between the two governmentsunder the Pakistan-USA Trade & Invest-ment Framework Agreement (TIFA).

On Monday Morning in London ,theUS Ambassador Susman, AmbassadorSherry Rehman, Pakistani High Com-missioner to UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan,Assistant US Trade RepresentativeMichael Delany, Secretary CommerceMunir Qureshi and Chairman Board ofInvestment Salim Mandviwala spoke atthe plenary session of the conference andmade a strong pitch for Pakistan-US eco-

nomic relations that were growing andconsistent as the one constant that hadnot been undermined by stresses in otherareas of the relationship.

The resilience of the Pakistan-USAbilateral trade & investment relationshipis evident from the fact the USA is Pak-istan’s largest export market and alsoPakistan’s largest inward investor.

The US government is represented atthis conference to demonstrate its sup-port to this opportunity for businessmenfrom both sides to interact and actuallyconduct business transactions.

Significantly Ambassador Dan Feld-man, Deputy Special Representative forAfghanistan and Pakistan, OPIC VicePresident Robert Drumheller, US Eco-nomic Counsellor, US Embassy Islam-abad Robert Ewing attended theconference and spoke with the PakistanGovernment officials expressing theirhope that this conference would provide

a tool for growth and prosperity in Pak-istan. The Pakistan Private InvestmentInitiative (PPII) that would attract pri-

vate investment for the Small & MediumEnterprises sector of Pakistan, was alsolaunched in London.

PAKISTAN OFFERS ‘BEST RETURNS’ ON INVESTMENT

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

DR. Asim Hussain, Minis-ter/Advisor to the PrimeMinister on Petroleum &Natural Resources, hasstressed upon the Explo-

ration & Production Companies operat-ing in Pakistan to support the PetroleumInstitute of Pakistan (PIP) and to helpdevelop it into a think-tank for policyinitiatives for the Oil & Gas sector.

He said this while chairing the Sem-inar titled “Pakistan’s Potential in Oil &Gas Sector” organized by PIP here inOGDC House, Islamabad today.

Dr. Asim Hussain said that Pakistanoffers great potential in the Oil & Gassector and the Government is doing itspart by introducing new policies to meetthe rising energy demand.

He assured full cooperation and fa-cilitation to all investors who wished toinvest in the country’s oil & gas sector.He further said that the Government isalso working on Tight Gas, Low BTUGas, Shale Gas, Marginal Gases, FlaredGas and Stranded Gas policies in orderto tap the available resources for thebenefit of the country.

Outlining the achievements of thepresent Government / Ministry of Petro-leum, Dr. Asim Hussain informed that1.6 million consumers were given gasconnections at a cost of Rs. 10.41 billionwhile 879 km of transmission lines and39,707 km of distribution and servicelines were added to gas network with aninvestment of Rs. 61.164 billion duringthe last four and half years of the pres-ent government. As a result of effortsbeing made, 750 MMCFD gas is likely tobe added in the system by June 2013, anincrease of 20 per cent.

Minister / Advisor on Petroleum in-formed that the Ministry prepared Na-tional Mineral Policy 2012 to meet thechallenges of large scale mining and en-hance international competitiveness. Itwas stated that the country imported oilto the tune of Rs. 15 billion dollars whichconstituted 36 per centt of the overallimport bill of the country. Besides, thevalue of the gas produced in the countryis 4.3 billion dollars and oil produced inthe country is 2.4 billion dollars.

Topics of the PIP seminar, coveredby senior industry officials and Govern-ment Officers, included Policy Reforms,Pakistan Business Relationships withIran and Turkmenistan, Achievements

of the E&P Sector, Synthetic Natural Gas(SNG) to Counter Natural Gas Crisesand Future Outlook of LNG in Pakistan.

In his closing address Chairman PIPMr. Asim Murtaza Khan, informed thatPIP would conduct a series ofseminars in the next cou-ple of months on top-ics of “Shale Gaspotential in Pak-istan”, “FastTracking LNGImports” and“LPG Outlookin Pakistan”.

The Petro-leum Instituteof Pakistan(PIP), which rep-resents all seg-ments of thepetroleum indus-try, was estab-lished in July 1963for the purpose of pro-moting and coordi-nating theactivities ofoil andg a s

sector in Pakistan. Currently the insti-tute consists of 25 industrial collectivemembers and is administered by a boardof directors.

Broadly the objectives of the insti-tute are to engage in activities for pro-

moting the long term development ofthe oil & gas sector in Pakistan.

This includes forecastingthe energy demand and sup-ply position of the countryover a 15-year period,which the institute under-

takes through its “Pak-istan Energy Outlook”document showcasing theenergy scene of the coun-try and suggesting solu-

tions for its energy issues.PIP is a country member ofInternational Gas Union

and World PetroleumCouncil.

‘PIP to serve as a think-tankfor oil and gas sector’

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

Pakistan Telecom Industry that hasbeen booster for the country’s econ-omy, now itself needs a catalyst ofgrowth in terms of marketing inno-vations and technology evolutionthat is 3G.

Telecom experts and players areunanimous in observation that the en-tire industry has been facing glut andslowdown especially in revenues.Therefore, the industry needs intro-duction of newer and latest technolo-gies including 3G, 4G, and Long TermEvolution (LTE).

According to the latest statisticsreleased by Pakistan Telecommunica-tion Authority (PTA), the telecom den-sity in Pakistan has reached 68 percent, which is among the highest in theworld. Mobilink still remains the topshareholder with 36 million sub-

scribers, followed by Telenor Pakistanthat is at the second position with 29million subscribers.

In order to secure its leading posi-tion in the future 3G markets, TelenorPakistan has completed a tender in2011 for an entire network swap and3G rollout by selecting a Chinese sup-plier Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE). By thenetwork infrastructure modernizationwith the latest technology, the growthof network profit and revenue is alsoexpected. However, Telenor Pakistanhas reportedly witnessed unenviablerevenue slowdown with the first-evercontinuous loss up to six million USDfor the last three months since its in-ception 7 years ago. There is no ques-tion mark at all that telecom industryplays a pivotal role in the developingPakistan economy and particularly thetelecom operators have collectivelybeen contributing positively to the na-tional exchequer in the past years. As

an European origin telecom giant, Te-lenor Pakistan, however, turns to befarcical day by day in devising theirmarketing strategy, which is actuallyundermining and annulling most por-tions of the advantages acquired fromthe network modernization. In thiscase, the revenue drop of Telenor Pak-istan automatically generates a gloomyforecast and anxiety on the telecom in-dustry overall performance. Peopleshould always keep in their minds,without a sound performance of tele-com industry the economy of Pakistanmay get even more miserable.

What is the way out? Of course,on one hand, the telecom industryplayers shall be wise enough to takeup all necessary measures to revisetheir marketing and sales strategy inorder to recover the lost amount. Onthe other hand, the market needs aninjection of 3G/4G/LTE or whateverto get excited.

3G shoo-in for viabilityPakistan telecom industry needs new impetus

OVM to develop

Latif Gas FieldKARACHI

ONLINE

OMV and its joint venture partners haveinked an agreement to develop Latif gasfield located in the Sindh province of Pak-istan. OMV is the operator of Latif conces-sion and holds a 33.34% interest. The otherpartners in the joint venture are Eni(33.33% interest) and PPL (33.33% inter-est). According to media reports, the devel-opment will comprise of drilling of newwells and construction of a 50 km pipelineto transport Latif gas to the OMV operatedSawan gas plant where Latif gas will beprocessed and thereafter delivered to cus-tomers. OMV is targeting a net productionof 5,700 boe/d from Latif in 2014.The company said that Latif field develop-ment decision which had been stalled forsome time was rendered economically feasi-ble due to the new petroleum policy of Pak-istan. This policy provides higher prices fornew discoveries and for investments leadingto incremental production over and abovethe reserves approved and certified.

Asia shares fallas earningscaution sets in

SINGAPORE

APP

Asian stocks and other riskier assets suchas commodities fell on Monday as in-vestors remained cautious about the out-look for the global economy andcorporate earnings despite better-than-expected U.S. jobs numbers last week.Wall Street stocks dipped late on Fridayas an unexpected drop in the U.S. unem-ployment rate was overshadowed by con-cerns about the earnings season, whichkicks off with Alcoa Inc on Tuesday, andS&P 500 futures traded in Asia eased onMonday.“It (the jobs number) looks good if youwere worried about an imminent col-lapse back into recession or if you hadperformed badly in a presidential de-bate,” said Russell Jones, global interestrate strategist at Westpac bank in Syd-ney, in a note.“But the reality is that it remains consis-tent with a U.S. economy growingaround or a little below trend, no more.”S&P 500 earnings for the third quarterare forecast to have fallen 2.4 percentfrom the year-earlier period, whichwould be the first decline in three years,according to Thomson Reuters data.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacificshares outside Japan fell 0.7 percent.Japanese financial markets were closedfor a public holiday.Equity markets have been rallying sincehitting their nadir for the year in earlyJune, receiving a renewed burst of impe-tus last month when major central banksrolled out fresh measures to supportfragile economies.MSCI’s Asia Pacific ex-Japan and AllCountries World Indexes are both uparound 13 percent over the year-to-date.But with the euro zone sliding back to-wards recession amid a still unresolveddebt crisis and the U.S. recovery far fromsecure, investors remain reluctant tochase growth-sensitive riskier assets tooaggressively.

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Tuesday, 9 October, 2012

BusinessMajor Gainers

COMPANY OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE TURNOVERColgate Palmolive 1200.00 1250.00 1201.00 1230.20 30.20 250Shezan Inter. 364.64 382.87 382.00 382.87 18.23 3,200Mithchells Fruit 364.00 382.20 371.00 382.20 18.20 3,800Indus Dyeing 444.99 467.23 422.75 450.67 5.68 1,300Shield Corpor 120.43 126.45 126.00 126.00 5.57 400

Major LosersRafhan Maize Prod. 3900.00 3800.00 3800.00 3800.00 -100.00 100Bata (Pak) Limited 1124.00 1100.00 1070.00 1070.00 -54.00 200Nestle Pakistan Ltd. 5040.00 5250.00 5000.00 5000.00 -40.00 60Pak Gum & Chemical 221.60 222.99 210.52 210.52 -11.08 4,000National FoodsSPOT 306.81 300.00 291.47 296.53 -10.28 5,500

Volume Leaders

P.T.C.L.A 19.71 20.54 19.80 19.87 0.16 17,451,500Nishat Mills Limited 61.40 61.20 58.33 58.46 -2.94 10,037,500D.G.K.Cement 50.21 50.22 48.10 48.69 -1.52 8,186,500K.E.S.C. 5.70 5.83 5.31 5.38 -0.32 7,875,000Lafarge Pakistan 5.92 5.93 5.49 5.58 -0.34 6,006,500

Interbank RatesUS Dollar 95.5529UK Pound 153.5917Japanese Yen 1.2214Euro 123.9034

Dollar EastBUY SELL

US Dollar 95.00 95.50Euro 122.46 123.75Great Britain Pound 151.39 152.96Japanese Yen 1.2034 1.2157Canadian Dollar 96.51 98.01Hong Kong Dollar 12.07 12.25UAE Dirham 25.76 26.00Saudi Riyal 25.21 25.45Australian Dollar 96.01 98.46

LAHORE

APP

BE A R I S Htrend pre-vailed inL a h o r eStock Ex-

change on Monday as itshed 67.60 points, follow-ing the LSE-25 indexopened with 3980.25 andclosed at 3912.65 points.The market’s overall situ-ation, however, corre-sponded to an upward trendas it remained at 4.294 mil-lion shares to close againstprevious turnover of 2.651million shares, showing an up-ward move of 1.642 millionshares. While, out of the total98 active scrips 19 moved up,49 remained equal and

30 shed values.United Bank Limited, Attock

Refinery Limited and HabibBank Limited were MajorGainer of the day by record-ing increase in their pershare value by Rs 3.32, Rs1.50 and Rs 1.26 respectively.

Oil and Gas Development CompanyLimited, Nishat Mills

Limited and Pakistan State Oil CompanyLimited lost their per share value by Rs3.07, Rs 2.84 and Rs 2.57 respectively.

The Volume Leader of the day includedKarachi Electric

Supply Company Limited with 1.551million shares, Nimir Industrial Chem-ical Limited with 790,000 shares andFauji Cement Company Limited with

341,000 shares.

Emirates welcomes 25th Airbus

A380 to expanding fleet

KARACHI: Emirates, in a perfect example of itsposition as one of the world’s fastest growing air-lines, took delivery of its 24th and 25th Airbus A380and its 78th Boeing 777-300 recently. The aircraftwill be immediately engaged into service acrossEmirates network of 126 destinations in 74 coun-tries; supporting Emirates planned expansion of itsnetwork and flights. The delivery of three wide-bodyaircraft in one day, a record for Emirates, requiredcareful review and advance preparation within alloperational units to ensure the availability of the re-quired flight crew, cabin crew, engineers, airportstaff in time to ensure a smooth entry into service.At the same time, Emirates becomes the first airlineof the world to offer inflight mobile phone serviceonboard an A380 aircraft; setting yet another recordfor inflight communications. In partnership withEmirates connectivity partner, OnAir, passengersaboard Emirates’ A380 aircraft will now be able tostay in touch via phone calls or through the mobiledata link on their personal devices with their family,friends and colleagues while inflight. The service isin addition to the OnAir WiFi service already avail-able on Emirates A380 aircraft.

HBL, Serena Hotels

enter into alliance

KARACHI: Habib Bank Limited (HBL), Pakistan’slargest commercial bank, inked an agreement withTourism Promotion Services (Pakistan) Limited, own-ers and operators of the Serena Hotels in Pakistan. Rep-resenting HBL at the signing ceremony were Mr.Nauman K. Dar, President & CEO, Ms. Sima Kamil,Head – Retail and Consumer Banking and Mr. AamirKureshi, Head - Consumer Banking while Mr. AzizBoolani, CEO and Mr. Naveed Abbas, CFO attended onbehalf of Serena Hotels. HBL would be the first bank toenter into collaboration with Serena Hotels, enablingthem to offer an exclusive membership of Serena Hotelsloyalty program ‘Prestige Plus’ to HBL CreditCard cus-tomers offering a wide range of facilities and services.

Synergy, Aegis Media enter

into strategic partnership

KARACHI: Synergy Group has signed a partnershipagreement with Aegis Group Plc – one of the leadingMedia and Communications Group, whereby bothcompanies have entered into a strategic partnershipto implement media solutions in Pakistan. As the firststep of this partnership, Synchronize Media, MediaAgency of Synergy will represent Carat, MediaAgency of Aegis Group in Pakistan. With this new as-sociation, Synchronize Media further strengthens itsreputation as one of the leading media buying housesin Pakistan. Having recently earned the title of #1media network by RECMA (Research Company Eval-uating the Media Agency Industry www.recma.com),Carat has a proven global track record of one of thefinest media agencies in the world.

BOK new Islamic branch

in F-10 Markaz

ISLAMABAD: The Bank of Khyber (BOK) Raast Is-lamic Banking Branch started operations in Islamabadafter a formal inauguration by Mr. Amir Haider KhanHoti, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in gracefulceremony this morning at F-10 Markaz Islamabad. Mr.Amir Haider Khan Hoti appreciated the efforts of theBOK management in enhancement of BOK networkacross the country which alternatively helps the socio-economic activities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincethrough BOK. The formal inauguration ceremony wasalso attended by Mr. Bilal Mustafa, Managing DirectorBank of Khyber (BOK), Syed Massom Shah PoliticalSecretary to the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,BOK Group Head Credits Mr. Imran Samad, GroupHead Raast Islamic Banking Mr. Kamran MasoodKhan, Group Head HRD Muhammad Tariq Naseem,SVP Business Development Islamic Mr. Sohail Khan,Head Marketing Syed Ali Nawaz Gilani, Chief ManagerIslamabad Blue area branch Mr. Muhammad FawadSadozai, Manager Raast Islamic Banking branchRawalpindi Bank Road Mr. Noor Nawaz Khan whereasManager of F-10 Markaz branch Mr. Maqsood AhmadCo-ordinate the inaugural ceremony events.

Zouhair Khaliq, Naeem Zamindar

honored in Pakistan Power 100

LAHORE: Wateen Telecom CEO Naeem Zamindarand Zouhair Khaliq, Member Board of DirectorsWateen, were recently honoured at the PakistanPower 100, a forum recognizing the most influentialPakistani men & women internationally, whose ex-ceptional work makes an enormous and essentialcontribution to the wealth, health and intellectualwell-being of their respective countries. They arethe only members from Pakistan’s telecoms com-munity to have been bestowed this honour. Thefinal awards ceremony for the Pakistan Power 100was held in London on the 29th of September withhundreds of dignitaries from the international Pak-istani community in attendance.

KARACHI: The Consul General of the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia, Mr.Faleh Mohammad Al Ruhaily, hosted a dinner on

the Occasion of the National day at a local hotel.Picture

shows Speaker Mr.Nisar Khuro, Barrister Abdul Razzak

Sattar, Iqbal Allawala, Iftekhar Soomro, Khalid Tawab,

Dr.Mohammad Ali Shah,Sohail Wajat and Anwar Saleh

Mohammad with other guests.

CORPORATE CORNER

Lahori bears announce arrival with 67-point jolt

KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

The Institute of Capital Markets (ICM)has made it mandatory for employees ofthe country’s brokerage houses to enrollwith it for a Certification Program in linewith the instructions of the Securities andExchange Commission of Pakistan(SECP). In a notice issued on Monday, theICM told the front regulators at KarachiStock Exchange (KSE) that all candidatesfro brokerage firms/houses, with relevantfunction, would be entertained throughexamination of the said certification.

“Grandfathering of experience wasallowed to be registered with the Insti-

tute… for one year from the date of thelaunch of the Program and thus, has beenclosed from June 30, 2011,” the ICM no-tice said adding that “After this date pass-ing of examination was obligatory”.

“As of from that it is mandatory to en-roll for the Certification Program,” said inthe notice Syed Javed Hassan, chief exec-utive of the Institute.

The KSE has been asked to advise itsmembers to encourage their employees,performing the designated functions, toregister with the ICM “at the earliest”.

ICM is a non-profit organizationworking since 2009 under the ambit ofthe SECP to educate the participants of fi-nancial sector industry.

SECP facilitates companies on AGMs

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

The Securities and Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (SECP) has, in view of the forth-coming Eidul Azha holidays during the lastweek of October, clarified that the compa-nies closing their financial year on June 30,can hold their Annual General Meetings(AGMs) by November 3, 2012.The companies that closed their financialyears on June 30 were required to holdtheir AGMs by October 31, 2012, in accor-dance with the provisions of Section 158 ofthe Companies Ordinance, 1984. This deci-sion has been made to facilitate companiesand encourage maximum shareholder par-ticipation in the AGMs.

SBP accepts Rs 87,300mbids in OMO

KARACHI

APP

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Mondayaccepted bids of Rs 87,300 million duringits reverse repo open market operation (In-jection) in Government of Pakistan MarketTreasury . Bills and Pakistan InvestmentBonds.The total bids received were Rs90,300 million and the rate of return is9.20 percent. The tenure of injection is 4days, says SBP release here.

Euro zone mulls 20b euroseparate budget paper

BERLIN

AGENCIES

European diplomats discussing the possibil-ity of a separate budget to improve mone-tary union in the euro zone are considering asum of around 20 billion euros ($26 billion),according to the Financial Times Deutsch-land (FTD). There is still no clear definitionof what a single, central budget would entail,but Germany strongly supports the idea as away of coordinating transfers among mem-ber states, and France is also in favour,which in terms of euro zone decision-mak-ing means it has substantial momentum. Inthe early release of an article to be publishedon Monday, FTD said the sum under con-sideration amounted to about 0.2 percent ofthe common currency bloc’s gross domesticproduct (GDP). It did not cite its sources.“The budget for the whole European Unioncurrently totals around 130 billion euros ayear, which is just over 1 percent of EU eco-nomic growth,” the paper wrote.

ISLAMABAD

APP

The 7th Four-day Trade DevelopmentAuthority of Pakistan (TDAP) Expo Pak-istan 2012 is expected to generate a busi-ness of US Dollar 690 Million, theorganizers said. According to the TDAPsources,they organized the 7th Edition ofExpo Pakistan held in Expo Center fromOctober 4 to 7, 2012.

They said that TDAP has had startedpreparation for organizing this exhibi-tion for last six months.

The soft launching of Expo Pakistan2012 was held on September 14, 2012which was attended among others by

Federal Minister for Commerce,Makhdoom Amin Faheem, CE TDAP,Tahir Raza Naqvi, Secretary TDAP, KabirKazi and large number of diplomats andleading businessmen. The sourcesadded that the inauguration ceremony ofExpo Pakistan 2012 was held in Gover-nor House on October 3, 2012 in thepresence of Governor of Sindh, SeniorMinisters, President FPCCI, diplomats,TDAP management, foreign delegatesand exhibitors of Expo Pakistan 2012.The Expo Pakistan 2012 was organizedin six (06) halls whereas the last yearExpo was held in five (5) halls. This yearthe fashion shows were conducted in PCHotel, the sources added.

‘stock brokers mustundergo iCM certification’

TDAP’s 7th Expo expected togenerate business of $690m

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