Amid efforts of consolidation and targeting low-risk businesses, the investment portfolio of Saudi Pak Industrial and Agriculture Investment Company Limited has reached Rs10 billion in different sectors of the economy in the country. The company has investments in various sectors including fertiliser, chemical, sugar, textile, communication and services sectors, a top official of the company said on Saturday. “The company aims to launch several other investments programmes in future but these new businesses would be confined to high-rated or low-risk clients only,” Chief Executive of Saudi Pak Industrial and Agriculture Company Limited, Muhammad Anwar said.
He said that the company had launched eight investment projects worth Rs550 million in various sectors including sugar, communication, energy and food. He said that construction of a high-rising commercial building in line with Saudi Pak Tower was also on the cards adding that the company also intends to shift the office of Saudi-Pak Real Estate from Karachi to Islamabad as part of its consolidated efforts.
Anwar said that owing to loss of about Rs.505 million to the company during the last year, the board of directors have decided to consolidate the investments besides divesting investments from the weak business where the company has been suffering from losses. He said that the consolidation process may take 6-12 months. “The company was on recovery campaign and it had recovered Rs1.7 billion since January 2011,” he added. Anwar said that the company has divested 51 per cent shares amounting to Rs225 million from Saudi-Pak Insurance Company which was facing losses as its book share prices have gone as down as Rs4.50. He said that by divesting, the company would get cash and could be saved from further losses adding that this cash could be invested in other productive schemes. He added that divestment from the Saudi-Pak Insurance Company was already approved by its board of directors, SECP, CCP and SBP.
On the overall economic situation, he said that over $25 billion exports of the outgoing financial year showed that Pakistan has great potential for investment in various sectors of economy which need to be tapped properly for economic prosperity. However, he maintained that cost of doing business has gone higher due to various factors including energy shortage.