KARACHI, Sept 27: The Central Depository Company (CDC) would seek listing at the three stock exchanges in the country in January 2009.

The mandate to act as lead manager for the conduct of Initial Public offering (IPO) of shares in the company has been awarded to BMA Capital.

“Listing is expected to take place through a fresh issue of shares on the Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad stock exchanges,” a spokesman for the company said on Saturday.

Mr Mohammad Hanif, CEO of CDC, and Mr Farrukh H Khan CEO at BMA Capital, put their signatures to the mandate agreement.

Explaining the basic functions of the CDC, the spokesman for BMA Capital said that the CDC was incorporated in 1993 and became operational in 1997 with the responsibility to manage and operate the Central Depository System (CDS).

He said that it was an electronic book entry system which recorded and transferred securities without having to change hands physically, as was the norm in distant past.

The transfer from one client account to another now takes place electronically.

Over the years, CDC has continued to perform well, with the FY08 revenues at Rs1.13 billion and profit-after-tax at Rs398 million.

The earnings represented growth of 51 per cent over the previous year.

Analysts said that the entry of the CDC in the capital market would be a good omen. The performance and functions of the company, which should be of interest to investors, would be made public.

The initiative taken by the company could also act as a catalyst for other unlisted fundamentally sound and profitable units to seek listing at the stock exchanges. That would enable those companies not only to mobilise funds from the equity market, but also help quench the thirst of stock exchanges for more floating stocks of blue chip entities.

The amount of shares and the price at which the stock in CDC would be issued has not been announced.

Aggregate outstanding shares in CDC currently stand at 20 m, of which eight million or 39.80 per cent are held by the Karachi Stock Exchange; 10 per cent each by Lahore Stock Exchange; Citibank Overseas Investment Corporation and MCB.

Around 6.35 per cent stock is with Habib Bank Limited and National Investment Trust; five per cent shares are held by Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan and the same by Picic.

Other stake-holders as shown on the cdcpakistan website include Islamabad Stock Exchange with 2.50 per cent; Crescent Steel and Allied Products Limited 1.75 per cent and Crescent Leasing Corporation and Shakerganj Mills holding one per cent of the stock, each.