KARACHI: Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd has given an order to Danish firm FLSmidth for engineering, procurement and supply of equipment for a complete cement production line with a daily capacity of 7,300 tonnes. The plant will be located in Iskanderabad, Mianwali.

In a statutory filing at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, the company said it had signed a contract on Monday with the Danish company for supply of equipment for the new clinker line-3. “The project is expected to begin trial production in February 2019,” the MLCF company secretary said in the statement.

Insight Securities said the production line-3 would cost more than $80 million and the total cost of the entire expansion project is estimated at $200m.

ICI PAKISTAN: The ICI’s board of directors has approved the signing of the shareholders’ agreement and incorporation of the joint venture company with Unibrands and Morinaga, the company said in a filing with the PSX on Tuesday.

The project’s cost is up to Rs4.8 billion and the facility would come on line in 2018.

The joint venture with Unibrands and Morinaga relates to the setting up a facility in Pakistan to manufacture Morinaga infant formula along with distribution, marketing and sale of such locally manufactured products.

The statement said that ICI would hold 51 per cent equity in the joint venture company while the combined equity stake of the remaining two partners would be 49pc.

ICI Pakistan Ltd, the polyester to soda ash company, made foray into the food business in 2014 by participating in the import, marketing and distribution of infant formula milk.

The company operates under the umbrella of the Yunus Brothers Group, which also owns the country’s largest cement company, Lucky Cement Ltd.

The group acquired three-quarter shares of ICI Pakistan for Rs14.4bn a few years back. At the close of the financial year 2015-16, ICI Pakistan’s total assets stood at Rs30.6bn. Paid-up capital amounted to Rs924m and the un-appropriated profit of Rs13.2bn produced total equity at Rs14.4bn.

Published in Dawn January 18th, 2017