Month: March 2022

ADB Approves $300 Million Loan To Develop Pakistan’s Capital Markets

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $300 million loan to further develop Pakistan’s capital markets, promote private investment in the country, and help to mobilise domestic resources to finance sustainable growth.The second subprogramme of ADB’s Third Capital Market Development Programme builds on institutional and regulatory reforms put in place under the first subprogramme approved in 2020. It aims to catalyse institutional investor demand and increase the range of alternative financial instruments such as derivatives and commodity futures that are available to investors.Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub…

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Govt mulls excluding KPC premium from HSD price computation

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Petroleum Division proposed exclusion of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) premium from price computation of high speed diesel (HSD) for the April-June 2022 period due to price volatility in the global market, The News learnt on Tuesday. According to a summary of the Petroleum Division, due to the volatile market conditions in the wake of Russia-Ukraine war and high demand of HSD in the forthcoming March-May harvesting season, the existing benchmarking appears unsustainable and oil marketing companies (OMCs) would suffer substantial losses. “OMCs may be unable to import HSD leading to…

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NPPMCL receives Rs100bn from syndicate of local banks

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National Power Parks Management Company (Pvt.) Limited (NPPMCL) received an unprecedented response from a syndicate of local banks for project financing in excess of Rs100 billion, said a press release issued on Monday. NPPMCL, which owns and operates two state-of-the-art power plants, is being privatized by the Privatisation Commission which led to the recapitalization of the government of Pakistan’s equity and sovereign guaranteed debt, refinancing it with long-term projects loans on a commercial basis. The successful bank syndicate includes conventional and Islamic banks (HBL, Meezan, NBP, Faysal, Alfalah, Bank of…

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National body finds 70 projects problematic during 2020-21

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Prime Minister’s constituted National Coordination Committee on Foreign Funded Projects (NCC-FFP) has scrutinized a total of 171 projects with involvement of foreign funding of almost $30 billion and found 70 projects as problematic with a cost of $13.28 billion during the last fiscal year 2020-21. According to the Year Book 2020-21 released on Monday, the NCC-FFP scrutinized 171 projects and with 236 follow-ups, so the total reviews of the number of projects had gone up to 436 projects. The official report states that the prime minister of Pakistan constituted a…

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Cement: Troubles ahead!

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Despite a visible slowdown in cement demand—though expectations earlier ran contrary to what transpired—and ballooning energy costs, cement industry in the first half of the fiscal year far exceeded estimates. Revenues and earnings grew substantially on the back of impressive retention, reduced overheads and financial costs, as well as a reasonable improvement in “other incomes”. Total cement dispatches dropped 4 percent in 1H, with a massive reduction of 32 percent in exports and a small growth in domestic sales (2%). Low export prices and freight costs made exporting overseas infeasible,…

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