July 30, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1424

KARACHI, July 29: The House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) will float a three-year term finance certificates (TFCs) to mobilize Rs300 million from the market.

This was stated by HBFC managing director Sohail Osman Ali while speaking at the inauguration of housing project zone (HPZ) office here on Tuesday.

“It will be a private offering,” he said. The HBFC chief said the finalization of the TFC was in the process and added that an investment bank had fully subscribed the issue that will be used to finance the existing and upcoming housing projects.

He pointed out that the credit rating agency PACRA has upgraded long-term rating of HBFC from BBB to A and short-term rating from A3 to A1.

Mr Osman said HPZ would handle about 40 per cent of the total disbursement in Pakistan. He said total equity of the HBFC was estimated at Rs4.5 billion, while its total worth stood at about Rs20 billion.

The HBFC chief said the recovery drive of the corporation was very successful and so far Rs6 billion had been recovered out of total infected portfolio of Rs18 billion. He pointed out that the recovery target for the year 2003 was Rs3 billion, of which Rs1.5 billion had been recovered from the borrower till June.—APP