Message from Chairman Pakistan Stock Exchange

It is exciting to witness the successful completion of the divestment of shareholding of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The strategic sale of 40% equity stake in PSX to the successful bidder Chinese Consortium along with two local financial entities, is a landmark achievement and clear demonstration that given leadership with far sightedness, strong will and spirit of unity, we can achieve major objectives.
Keeping national interest supreme, the divestment process was ably facilitated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) through forming the Divestment Committee. I applaud the Committee on completing the process smoothly and with complete transparency. With growing economic activity and business friendly policies of the Government, capital market of the country possesses the potential of emerging as a regional investment hub. My felicitations also to the SECP, under the leadership of its Chairman, Mr. Zafar Hijazi and all his team, for facilitating this endeavour and my thanks to the Honourable Finance Minister, Mr. Muhammad Ishaq Dar, for providing us confidence and supporting the process whose result we see today.
Post integration of exchanges and emergence of PSX saw a reconstitution of the Demutualization Committee by SECP for the sole purpose of divestment of shares of PSX, under the nomenclature of Divestment Committee that was to be headed by Mr. Shehzad Chamdia. Today, Mr. Chamdia has made it possible to induct an international exchange operator into PSX by successfully negotiating the sale of up to 40 percent equity stake in PSX to the Chinese Consortium comprising of 3 Chinese exchanges and 2 local financial institutions. This strategic partnership with the said Consortium shall enhance PSX's systems and operations towards global best practices, raise the international profile of the country's capital market, encourage companies to cross-list and enable Pakistani companies to raise capital globally.
The Chinese entities involved in today's historic sale have shown their interest in Pakistan's capital market largely due to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CPEC has commitment of $40-50 billion in large infrastructure projects. The Chinese exchanges Consortium has the vision to see that capital markets can play a major role in terms of funding, transparency, and governance for these projects.
A consortium of financial institutions is also beneficial because PSX has large domestic FIs in play, thus the capital market's distribution immediately gets increased. With local FIs in the consortium being HBL and Pak-China Investment Company Limited, they will really understand and become comfortable with the capital markets while this partnership will complement their mainstream banking and financing business.
By endorsing institutional shareholding structure for the stock exchange, including local and foreign investors, it is expected to bring in the international expertise, technology, improved governance at the Board level and create international linkages for attracting foreign investment. Local institutional participation will assist in enhanced capital market outreach, local market knowledge and overall objective of financial inclusion undertaken by the SECP.
I look towards a very promising future for our capital market to serve investors and businesses better.