Author Archives: bmacapital

BMA Capital Hosts a Corporate Briefing on Attock Cement Company Limited

Karachi: BMA Capital Management Limited, Pakistan’s premier financial services group hosted a corporate briefing of Attock Cement Company Ltd (ACPL) on Thursday 15th May 2014. Mr. Irfan Amanullah, CFO Attock Cement Company Limited, briefed about the growth prospects and competitive dynamics of the cement industry and also discussed the future plans of his company.

Mr. Amanullah highlighted that unlike other developing economies, cement demand in Pakistan has not been growing due to absence of government’s investment in any major public development projects. However, he expects this trend to change in the near future on the back of increasing foreign flows and better economic management by the government. “Pakistan is faced with a shortfall of 3.0-3.5mn housing units and ~300K is added to this stock every year. In addition, there is a huge infrastructure gap – road networks, dams, bridges – that needs to be filled. If the government is able to increase its revenues, it will be able to route the surplus in to development programs in housing and infrastructure,” he added.

Mr Amanullah expects exports to Afghanistan to decline but was optimistic about demand in the Middle East and Africa. “Capacity expansions in the Middle East and India would be absorbed due to increasing demand from Africa and Sri Lanka,” he added.

He emphasized the importance of price discipline in both domestic and export markets for long term sustainability of the industry. “However, price increases are no longer the margin driver for the industry. Key driver is going to be reduction in production costs,” he further said.

Mr Amanullah touched upon the potential earnings impact from Attock Cement’s 3000 tons per day grinding mill in Basra, Iraq and also discussed various measures that the company is taking to improve its production efficiencies.

BMA Capital Announces Joining of Bilal Athar as Head of Equities

Karachi: BMA Capital Management Limited, Pakistan’s premier financial services group, today announced that Bilal Athar, a leading capital markets expert has joined its management team as an Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Equities to boost BMA’s equities business with institutional, international and retail clients.

Bilal has over 17 years of extensive experience in Pakistan’s equity capital markets. Prior to joining BMA, he has held senior positions heading Equities at JS Global (Head of Business Development), Elixir Securities (Director Equity Sales), Invisor Securities (Head of Brokering), and W.I. Carr (Head of Retail).

Commenting on the news, Moazzam M. Malik, Chairman & CEO of BMA Capital said “with his impressive track-record gained with major Pakistani institutions and his strong knowledge of the local & regional equity markets, Bilal is probably one of the most senior, experienced and respected professionals of the financial services industry in Pakistan. All our team is really excited to work with him as he brings unparalleled expertise and a wealth of business opportunities and products, especially with respect to foreign emerging & frontier market investors who have an interest in Pakistan and BMA Capital’s own regional growth plans.

BMA Capital Strengthens Corporate Finance Team

Karachi: BMA Capital Management Limited, Pakistan’s premier financial services group, today announced the appointment of two senior management positions to strengthen its high-profile corporate finance & advisory team in Pakistan. The two executives bring with them rich and varied experience in the investment banking business.

Syed Hassan Ali, a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accounts (UK) has joined BMA Capital as Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance & Advisory. Prior to joining the company, Hassan was associated with KPMG Pakistan for eight and a half years and was lately its Manager Advisory, Transactions & Restructuring.

At the same time, Usman Saeed has also joined BMA as Vice President, Corporate Finance & Advisory; he brings with him seven years of experience in corporate finance & equity research having previously been employed at Arif Habib and Taurus Securities. He is an MBA in Finance and Bachelors of Science (Honors).

Welcoming the two executives on the team, Moazzam M. Malik, Chairman & CEO at BMA said, “We are on a growth path, the general elections of 2013 coupled with the incoming Govt’s economic reforms agenda is providing us with many opportunities, with the induction of Hassan and Usman BMA plans to further strengthen its corporate finance product offering ranging from mergers & acquisitions advisory, capital raising via the debt & equity capital markets, privatization, restructurings, Islamic finance, transaction support services & private equity investments in Pakistan and regional markets; the team at BMA welcomes the two executives.”