KARACHI: Bykea, a local on-demand transport and logistics platform, on Wednesday raised $13 million in second institutional financing round led by Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures).

The round, which brought the total funds raised to $22m, saw participation from existing investors Middle East Venture Partners and Sarmayacar.

Bykea plans to invest significantly in its platform strategy leveraging its peak active driver fleet of 30K+ in 2020 for cross utilisation in e-commerce logistics, food and payment services in 2021. The fresh capital will also be used to expand its market reach in smaller cities.

Silk Bank earns Rs2.5bn

Silk Bank Ltd earned a profit after tax of Rs2.466 billion in the second quarter of 2020, surging by a phenomenal growth of 5040pc over just Rs48m in same period last year.

This resulted in earnings per share of Rs0.27, up from Rs0.01. In 1HCY20, the bank recorded net profit of Rs1.886bn, as against Rs116m.

Kohat Cement bottom line turns red

Kohat Cement Company recorded net loss of Rs444 million for the year ended June 30, representing a loss per share at Rs2.21.

The company had earned profit after tax of Rs2.47bn the previous year with earnings per share at Rs12.29. Sales declined 28pc to Rs11.3bn for FY20, from Rs15.6bn last year.

Pioneer Cement bleeds Rs210m

Pioneer Cement revealed loss after tax at Rs210m and LPS at Rs0.92 for FY20, as against PAT of Rs790m and EPS at Rs3.48.

Net sales fell by 35pc to Rs6.28bn in FY20 compared to Rs9.73bn the year before. Similarly, cost of sales declined by 16pc to Rs6.39bn which translated in to gross profit of Rs2.14bn during the period under review.

Oil production target set at 31.12m barrels

The government has set the target of producing 31.12 million barrels oil and 1.58 trillion cubic feet (TCF) gas during 2020-21 in a bid to meet maximum fuel requirements through indigenous means and bring down the country’s oil import bill.

The gap between indigenous gas and petroleum production and demand will be supplemented through Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and petroleum product imports, according to an official document available with APP.

Pakistan’s total consumption of petroleum products during 2019-20 stood at 19.68m tonnes, out of which 11.59m was achieved through local refineries and 8.09m via import.

Whereas there was a gap of over two Billion Cubic Feet per Day (BCFD) gas between production and demand of the commodity to meet the needs of more than 9.6m consumers across the country.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2020