KARACHI: Emaar Pakistan, the subsidiary of Dubai-based Emaar Properties, Pakistan’s multinational pharma company CCL, FF Steel, Fast Cables and International Packaging Films are all at different levels in the process of exploring the listing option at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), their key officials informed during a panel discussion held here in a day-long IPO Summit 2024 themed ‘Empowering the Future of Capital Markets’.
The summit, organised by the PSX, was aimed at providing impetus to the Initial Public Offerings process after Pakistan saw only one listing in 2023.
PSX IPO Summit 2024: Empowering the future of capital markets
Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at the PSX, Raeda Latif, who moderated the discussion ‘Impetus and Goals for Listing’, confirmed to Business Recorder that companies whose top officials participated in the panel are at different levels of exploring listing and listing readiness at the PSX.
She said some of these companies were getting prospectus ready for the IPO.
CEOs of Emaar Pakistan, CCL Pharma, FF Steel, and MD Fast Cables and Chairman International Packaging Films were part of the panel.
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Emaar Pakistan CEO Sohail Baig said the objective of getting listed is to ensure that the company establishes themselves as the first international developer to list on the PSX.
“It will unlock opportunities and help us build relationships with all the partners in the value chain, which at the moment is missing,” said Baig during the panel discussion.
“Despite being one of the backbones of the economy (the real estate business), the documented space is still at the nascent stage. We are looking to help document the sector and not just our company,” he added.
“Access to liquidity will also allow us to accelerate our growth. We want to do things and we want to do it faster.”
He also said Emaar gets listed in the markets it operates.
CCL Pharma CEO Ali Masood said the company is currently operating in 24 countries of the emerging markets and their recent acquisition of a PICS (Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme) approved facility will give them access to export to 37 countries from Pakistan.
For their fast-paced expansion plans and challenges of high interest rates, they were evaluating options of looking to raise funds from the public. “(But) we will do the listing at the right time. We hope the country reverses from here for the better.”
CEO FF Steel Zarak Khan Khattak said that they are into local steel bar production and copper export business.
“We are a 37-year-old company and soon to be listed this calendar year,” said Khattak who attended the session virtually because he was unable to travel due to fog.
“For me and my team, listing is to perform at the grandest stage of them all. We are at the moment the largest selling brand of steel bars in Pakistan. We are the top most company in terms of bottom-line.”
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He said that they will be the first company from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to be listed in 32 years.
“It will be a feather in our cap and motivate others in the province to pursue listing as well.”
MD Fast Cables Kamal Mian also voiced enthusiasm.
“In the cables (business), there is no technology or intellectual property prohibiting a Pakistani company from competing with a European, Japanese or an American brand because it is made as per (international) standard.
“Our success story has been to provide the best product in Pakistan so there is no dependency on imported products on the basis of their quality. We believe to make it (to take this success) beyond our generation and to empower the community’s vision, we need to be part of the capital markets.”
Muhammad Amin Gondil, Chairman International Packaging Films, said his company gives a lot of importance to corporate governance.
“I think after listing it will energise us further,” said Gondil. “It will solidify our position in the sense that all our stakeholders will have more confidence and more trust (in us).”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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