KARACHI, Sept 18: Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDC) announced on Wednesday that 270 securities had joined National Clearing & Settlement System (NCSS) during the financial year 2002-03, taking the total number of securities settled through the NCSS to 302.

Mr Hanif Jakhura, CEO of CDC forecast total number of such securities to go up to 417 by December 2003. Mr Jakhura observed that CDC was now one of the largest providers of trustee services in the country and also a major custodial services to 14 closed- end Mutual Funds including ICP and SEMF.

The CDC chief said that till June 30, 2002, number of CDC live securities had gone up to 435, from 389 at the same time a year ago. Market capitalization of shares in CDC at end financial year 2003 stood at Rs253 billion, representing 122 per cent jump from Rs114bn at close of FY ’02.

The CDC CEO stated that the improvement in numbers had been achieved by bringing an across the board improvement in services and raising the level of its services to clients and investors.

Analysts said that although more than 250 companies had yet to join the system, after the July 31, 2003 deadline by the SECP, the process of more securities entering into the CDS had speeded up following the 50 per cent reduction in Security Deposit for new issuers and 10 per cent reduction in annual fee, transaction fee and custody fee. The CDC had also refunded 50 per cent of security deposit to those issuers who had already joined the CDS, the total amount of such refund being Rs51 million.

Mr.Hanif Jakhura also unveiled financial figures for the year ended June 30, 2003. The company had logged in pretax profit amounting to Rs133.87 million for the year 2003, up 231.7 per cent from Rs40.36 million a year ago. CDC’s revenue rose 41 per cent to Rs304.69 million in the latest year, from Rs214.78 million in FY ’02.