LOS ANGELES, July 24: Despite weakening stocks amid frustrated investors, another joint Pakistan-US based software firm announced on Tuesday it is filing for Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the US market.

EssTec, Inc. having its offices in Lahore, Dubai and Santa Monica (CA) filed with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the IPO on Monday (July 22), it was announced on Tuesday.

It will, thus, be the third Pakistani-American software firm to go public. The other two were NetSol International Inc., and Align Technologies, both have vast operational bases in Lahore.

EssTec was founded in 1999 by Pakistani-American businessman and financier Tariq Khan.

Although Mr. Khan has been associated and assisted in taking over eight companies public in the past six years, he first came into the spotlight within the Pakistani community when he took public the first software company from Pakistan onto the US markets. That company, NetSol International, went public at $5 per share and within eighteen months was trading as high as $80 per share on Nasdaq.

In an exclusive interview, Khan told Dawn EssTec was offering one million shares in the IPO, hoping to raise between $8-10 million.

“Our investment bankers, West Park Capital (based in Century City), has indicated a share price of between $8-10. If successful, we will raise between $8 million and $10 million,” he told Dawn.

Khan said the whole process from filing to actual trading would take between 90-100 days. After the SEC’s approval, the EssTec stocks will be traded in the AMEX.

“After having jumped several hurdles over the past year including but not limited to the “dot.com” collapse, the technology sector fallout, the stock markets downward spiral, 9/11 incident, tensions between India and Pakistan, accounting changes and scandals we are proud to announce that not only did we survive, but with the support and backing of our Investment Bankers, we have today filed with the SEC for an Initial Public Offering of 1,000,000 shares of EssTec common stock.”

He went on to say, “We appreciate the patience of our shareholders, the support of our clients, and the continued dedication and commitment of our employees.”

In 1999, EssTec set up its operations in Lahore and Santa Monica, California, to develop and create a range of applications in sectors such as mobile technologies and workflow management.

Earlier this year, EssTec attracted some fairly high profile board members including Faysal Zarooni, the Chairman of the Board, who belongs to one of the most prominent Dubai based families, as well as Nasir Zafar Ahmed, the exclusive agent for Neutrogena and ICN Pharmaceutical in Pakistan. EssTec also has managed to get Dr. Sana Khan, a prominent Southern California based businessman on its Board.

EssTec has developed partnerships with companies in the United States, Hong Kong and the Middle East to act as the “ Wireless Solutions Partner”. This will allow EssTec to generate additional clients and revenues without having to incur additional costs by creating its own business development teams and offices in some of these regions.