KARACHI: The board of directors of Amreli Steels Ltd (ASL) has decided to temporarily suspend operations at its oldest Karachi-based manufacturing facility, Site Rolling Mills (SRM), due to the uncertain economic and political situation.

In a stock filing on Tuesday, ASL said that the SRM represents 30pc of the company’s total production capacity.

The situation will be reviewed in six months, and the facility may reopen if conditions improve. During this period, the company will continue operating its Dhabeji facility, which accounts for 70pc of its production capacity, to meet current and future steel demand.

Amreli took this decision due to significant economic challenges facing the documented sector. These challenges have been aggravated by various economic and political factors, including declining demand for steel bars, rising utility costs (particularly electricity), high interest rates, an unbalanced tariff structure, heavy tax burdens, smuggling and increased undocumented activities. All these contribute to unfair competition and severely disrupt market equilibrium.

TOMCL gets China order

The Organic Meat Company Ltd (TOMCL) has secured a significant contract to supply frozen cooked beef meat to China, the company said in a stock filing on Tuesday. The contract, valuing $12 million, is expected to be a major milestone in the company’s business operations, expanding its international footprint in the growing Chinese market.

The contract involves supplying high-frozen cooked beef meat over the agreed period, with shipments scheduled to commence momentarily. The company said this partnership aligns with the company’s strategy of enhancing export operations and entering new markets, particularly in Asia. The meat exporter expects the contract to impact its revenue and profitability during FY25 favourably.

Mari investment plan

The board of directors of Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (MPCL) has approved an investment of Rs10 billion in the proposed wholly-owned subsidiary company with a focus on data centres, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies, including petroleum and mining sectors, by way of equity.

Book building for BF Biosciences today

As the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is set to witness another initial public offering in the current year, BF Biosciences is set to go public by selling 25 million shares through book building on Sept 25-26 with a floor price of Rs55 (Rs1.375bn/$4.9m) and cap of Rs77 per share (Rs1.925bn/$6.9m).

The market capitalisation of the company post IPO would be Rs4.9bn-6.8bn ($18-25m).

Around 30pc of BF Biosciences’ product portfolio is categorised as non-essential, while the remaining is essential. The IPO proceeds will be utilised to purchase raw and packing materials to meet the post-expansion working capital needs, purchase of plant & machinery to broaden the product base and improve process efficiencies, and acquire export certifications and new product development including Glucagon-like Peptide (GLP1).

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2024