KARACHI: Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Ltd. (GATM) on Friday declared over 67 per cent growth in after tax profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.
According to the financial results shared with the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the textile unit declared Rs1.167 billion as profit after tax for the first quarter (July – September) 2021 as compared with profit after tax of Rs697 million in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.
The company declared earnings per share at Rs2.73 for the period under review as compared with Rs1.63 in the same period of the last fiscal year.
The sales of the company increased to Rs24.64 billion during the quarter ended September 30, 2021 as compared with Rs20.32 billion in the same quarter of the last year.
The textile unit declared gross profit at Rs5.04 billion for July-September 2021 as compared with Rs3.69 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The board of directors of Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited in its meeting held on October 28, 2021 approved the financial results. The board has not recommended any cash dividend, bonus shares or right shares.
Facebook at its annual developer conference announced to change the name to Meta. The company said it would better “encompass” what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality.
According to BBC, the company, which announced the change at its annual developer conference, said it would better “encompass” what the firm now does. It also revealed plans for a metaverse – an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets.
The name change follows a series of negative stories about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee.
“The metaverse is the next frontier,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a presentation at Facebook’s Connect conference, held virtually on Thursday. “From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.”
Facebook’s name change is the most definitive signal so far of the company’s intention to stake its future on a new computing platform — the metaverse, an idea born in the imaginations of sci-fi novelists, according to Bloomberg.
In Facebook’s vision, people will congregate and communicate by entering virtual environments, whether they’re talking with colleagues in a boardroom or hanging out with friends in far-flung corners of the world.
KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday defended its new trading system and said that Jade Trading Terminal (JTT), which was developed on demand of stockbrokers, is causing problems of disconnections and slow speed.
The bank declared Rs9.91 billion as profit after tax during January – September 2021 as compared with Rs11.91 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.
The earnings per share of the bank also declined to Rs2.56 for the period under review as compared with Rs3.08 in the same period of the last year.
SCBL in its financial statement said that despite uncertainties surrounding COVID-19, the bank delivered a resilient financial performance with a profit before tax of Rs18.4 billion compared to Rs19.9 billion in the corresponding period last year.
The revenue of the bank fell to Rs26.56 billion during first nine months of the calendar year as compared with Rs32.07 billion in the corresponding months of the last year. The bank said that the revenue was lower by Rs5.5billion primarily due to sharp reduction in interest rates in second quarter of 2020, subdued economic activity and market volatility which impacted foreign exchange income, revaluation income on derivatives and gain on sale of securities.
Administrative costs continue to be well managed through operational efficiencies and disciplined spending with an increase of one per cent compared to same period last year.
Moreover, strong recoveries of bad debts, coupled with lower impairments as a result o a prudent risk approach led to a net release of Rs0.8 billion in year to date September 2021 compared to charge of Rs3.2 billion in the comparative period.
The bank said that all businesses have positive momentum with strong growth in underlying drivers. “This is evident from pickup in net advances, which have grown by 26 per cent since the start of this year. This was a result of targeted strategy to build profitable, high quality and sustainable portfolios,” it added.
On the liabilities side, the bank’s total deposits grew by Rs40 billion, whereas current and saving accounts grew by Rs41 billion since the start of this year and comprise 93 per cent of deposit base.
KARACHI: Lucky Cement Limited has won the Management Association of Pakistan’s Corporate Excellence Award in the Cement Sector category.
Noman Hasan, Executive Director of Lucky Cement Limited received the award at the 36th MAP Annual Corporate Excellence Award Ceremony held at a local hotel yesterday.
The Corporate Excellence Awards was instituted by MAP in 1982 with the sole aim to recognize and honor companies showing outstanding performance and demonstrating progress and enlightened management practices.
Noman Hasan, Executive Director, Lucky Cement Limited, remarked, “We are pleased to accept this recognition and would like to thank all our internal and external stakeholders for their confidence and continuous support throughout the years.”
He further added: “Our dynamic human capital and efficient corporate governance framework aligned to our vision of ensuring a sustainable leadership position in Pakistan has helped us to achieve remarkable results in every domain of our business. Being an industry leader, we are determined to continue setting new benchmarks and create an environment of growth and opportunities.”
Lucky Cement received the award based on having the best corporate practices and governance in the cement sector. The primary criteria for this award emanates from best Corporate and Management practices reflected by Leadership, Corporate Governance, Customer and Market Focus, HR, Strategic Planning and Communication, Social Responsibility, Risk Management, IT Infrastructure, Service Delivery and Security.
KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on Thursday announced a massive jump in its quarterly net profit by over 120 per cent for the period ended September 30, 2021.
According to consolidated results, the profit of the company surged to Rs11.53 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, as compared with Rs5.22 billion in the same quarter of the last year.
PSO announced Rs24.93 as earning per share for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 as compared with Rs11.07 in the same quarter of the last year.
The company in its board of management meeting held on October 28, 2021 approved the results and recommended no dividend for the period.
The company posted a gross profit of Rs 22.1 billion with gross margins set at 4.80 per cent in the first quarter of 2021/2022 compared to gross profit of Rs 11.5 billion (4.09 per cent gross margins) in the prior year.
Analysts view noteworthy changes in ex-refinery prices that resulted in inventory gains of around Rs 7 billion in 1QFY22 compared to inventory gains of Rs 1.5 billion in same period last year.
Other operating income decreased by 87 per cent QoQ to Rs 1,786 million in 1QFY22. We believe, absence of Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) resulted in decline in other income.
Meanwhile, finance costs nosedived by 92 per cent QoQ and 27 per cent YoY to Rs 626mn which is owing to lower reliance on short term borrowings and lower interest rates, we view.
The company recorded effective taxation at 32.6 per cent in 1QFY22 compared to 33.0 per cent in 1QFY21.
KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines, the national flag carrier, on Wednesday declared a loss of Rs42.72 billion during the first nine months (January – September) of 2021.
The losses of the national flag carrier were over Rs40 billion in the same period of the last year.
The board of directors of PIA in its meeting on October 27, 2021, approved the financial results for the period ended September 30, 2021.
The board has not approved any cash dividend, bonus shares, or right shares for the period.
The revenue of the airline significantly declined to Rs49.36 billion during January – September 2021 as compared with Rs74.36 billion in the same period of the last year.
On account of aircraft fuel, the airline has spent Rs13.44 billion during the period under review as compared with Rs18.08 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.
Administrative expenses of PIA reduced to Rs3.97 billion during the first nine months of the current year as compared with Rs4.53 billion in the same period of the last year.
The exchange losses of the company were at Rs5.18 billion for the period under review as compared with Rs7.57 billion.
KARACHI: Naveed Abbas, Additional Director and Chief Domain Officer, Pakistan Single Window (PSW) has said that 27 banks will be integrated with the PSW for the facilitation of import and exports.
He said that the facility will help reduce time, cost, and complexity to ensure ease of business, besides supporting the government agencies in adopting an integrated risk management approach for efficient enforcement of control on cross-border trade.
Under the PSW platform, he said, an ICT-based port community system will also be established and all stakeholders including FIA, Customs, terminal operators, and others will be integrated for efficient cargo management at seaports, airports, dry ports, and land border crossings.
The implementation of PSW by June 2022 will enable Pakistan to achieve compliance with WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement besides helping to unlock its potential in becoming a hub for trade and transit.
He informed that thousand of registrations have been received so far in the PSW portal whereas 27 banks will also be integrated with PSW which would save the business community from visiting banks to fulfill the requirement of Export and Import forms. Right now in the first phase, PSW have five large banks integrated and other are under process.
Yawar Nawaz, Additional Director (PSW) gave a detailed presentation on the main context of Pakistan Single Window (PSW) is to efficient cross border trade management – key enabler for FDI, GVCs integration, International Trade & Transit; 75 Regulators – working in silos with weak controls, limited resources, antiquated regulations/enforcement; Resultant Thick Borders – nullifies strategic location of Pakistan & investment in allied infrastructure and NSW to overhaul management of external trade/transit & fulfil commitment under WTO’s TFA.
The Scope of PSW is that Single ICT based National Trade Platform for processing cross border trade; Process re-engineering & back-end automation of participating government departments; Port Community System for removing logistic side inefficiencies; Integrated Risk Management for smarter controls, compliance & facilitation; Integrated Tariff Management System for simplified compliance; A robust Business Model for sustainable operations & phased expansion.
The Core Services of PSW are Integrated Tariff Management System, Unified Registration System, Unified e-Payment System, Integrated Lab Management, Integrated Risk Management System, Joint Inspections, Port Community System, Trade Information Portal, Alignment of WeBOC, Hardware, Change Management and Implementation Plan.
The Cardinals for PSW is to eliminating redundancy & duplication, least physical engagement among stakeholders, use of standardized and harmonized data elements, incremental submission of structured data with parallel processing, automatic routing & verifications and real time information exchange. Samar Jamil, BPM Head (PSW) briefed the Registration Process step by step.
After detailed presentation, exporters asked several questions related to PSW which was answered by the PSW Team of Officials.
Muhammad Jawed Bilwani Chief Coordinator & Former Central Chairman PHMA welcomed the PSW Officials at PHMA for this orientation seminar to enlighten the exporters about the main features of PSW which will provide single electronic platform for facilitating compliance with regulatory regime for cross border trade in Pakistan and to answer questions asked by exporters.
Shahzad Azam Khan, Central Chairman PHMA; Abdul Rehman, Chairman (SZ) PHMA; Abdul Kadir Bilwani, Senior Vice-Chairman; Faisal Arshad Shaikh, Vice-Chairman also participated in the Seminar and appreciated this imperative initiative which is a need of time to provide single and unified platform for business requirements which will decrease the cost of manufacturing and shall increase the ease of doing business.
KARACHI: The stock market gained 623 points on Wednesday as new trading system suspended for more than two hours. The benchmark KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended 45,851 points from previous day’s closing of 45,228 points.
Analysts at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 index rose 1.38 per cent to settle the day at 45,851 points.
The rally is attributed to improvement in sentiments owing to reports suggesting that Saudi Arabia would deposit $3 billion cash in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and also provide $1.2 billion worth of oil on deferred payments which will further pave way for the resumption of the IMF program.
However, the new trading system kept activity restricted and trading was also suspended at noon for 2 hours and 30 minutes in order to resolve technical issues.
Volumes remained thin with 88 million shares traded in the KSE-100 index while the KSE All Share index saw a total traded volume of 163 million shares.
The volume leader for today was WTL with 11.84 million shares traded during the shortened session.
ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday.
The meeting was part of the ongoing consultation process between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff about the timing of change of command in ISI and selection of the new DG ISI.
During this process a list of officers was received from ministry of Defence. Prime Minister interviewed all the nominees.
A final round of consultation was held between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff today.
After this detailed consultative process, name of Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum was approved as new DG ISI.
The designate DG ISI shall assume charge on 20th November, 2021.
