KARACHI, Jan 28: The Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDC), stated in its Annual Report 2002 that the number of shares in its Investor Account Services (IAS) had swelled to 1.309 billion, representing market capitalization of over Rs28.3 billion by the end of financial year ended September 30, 2002.
The IAS also had managed clientele of almost 7000, representing both individuals and corporate entities. CDC had extended its services to retail investors by introducing Investor Account Services in Karachi in 1999; Lahore in 2000 and Islamabad in 2002.
Until end-September 2002, a total of 398 securities in Central Depository System (CDS) had been declared live. These represented 48.7 per cent of the 816 securities that had been declared eligible. The response in the investment companies/ Securities Companies/banks sector had been the best with all 42 companies that had been declared eligible, going live. Also 36 of the 37 Term Finance Certificates (TFCs) were live, representing per centage of live vs declared eligible at 97.30 per cent. Other positive response was witnessed in leasing companies, where 27 of the 29 companies declared eligible, went live (93.10 per cent); fuel & energy 24 of the 26 companies (92.31 per cent); mutual funds 32 of the 37 securities (86.5 per cent) and cement where 19 out of 23 companies went live, representing live to eligible per centage at 82.6.
The poorer response was from the textile sector: Of the 52 securities declared live in the textile composite sector, only 8 had gone live, reflecting 15.4 per cent ratio of live to declared eligible securities; followed by 26 companies from 150 in textile spinning (17.3 per cent); 6 of 27 securities in weaving (22.2 per cent) and 2 of the 21 companies becoming live in the vanaspati & allied industries sector.
The CDC Annual Report 2002 stated that the Lahore High Court had dismissed the writ petitions filed by various companies, mainly belonging to the textile sector against the CDC, SECP and the Stock Exchanges. The report said that the High Court observed that it was the SECP and not the High Court which was invested with the function of regulating the CDC and the bourses. “It was decided that no coercive action would be taken against the companies until SECP has re-examined the matter and the Court accordingly directed SECP to do so,” the report concluded.
The financials showed that CDC had earned pre-tax profit amounting to Rs40.4 million, representing 64 per cent improvement over pre-tax profit of Rs24.9 million earned in 2001. After-tax profit was up 32 per cent to Rs23.4 million, from Rs18 million. Revenue grew 24 per cent to Rs214.8 million for 2002, from Rs172.9 million the year earlier, while expenses increased 17 per cent to Rs174.4 million, from Rs148 million. The company said that efforts towards T+3 settlement cycle had resulted in an increased settlement volume. Furthermore, despite 20 per cent reduction in transaction fee effective November 2001, the transaction revenue had surged by 50 per cent to Rs106 million in 2002, from Rs71 million the year earlier.
