ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: Saudi Pak Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company experienced record growth in its operations in the year 2005.

The company approved financing and investment facilities of Rs7,120m in 2005, which is 40pc higher than the previous year’s Rs5,084m, said Rashid Zahir, chief executive of the company in a press statement issued here.

Similarly, the disbursement of financing and investment facilities increased by 41.7pc to Rs5,884m from Rs4,151m in 2004.

He said that the increase in financing and investment was attributable to higher business intake in a growing favourable business environment.

The company made investment in traditional sectors as well as upcoming sectors including telecom, media and construction.

The chief executive of the company said that the position of recovery of dues from the financing portfolio also showed a marked improvement in the year under review.

The recovery of dues rose by 38.1pc to Rs4,306m from Rs3,118m in 2004. The collection ratio stood at 94.9pc, which is the best in the last five years, he said.

The company made strategic investments in the fields of banking, leasing and general insurance.

Commenting on the strategic investments, Rashid Zahir said that the company decided to raise its equity stakes to 70pc in Saudi Pak Commercial Bank in 2005.

The entity rating of the bank has recently been upgraded to A/A-2 (single A/A-Two) with a stable outlook on the successful completion of the right issue of shares and increase in paid-up capital to Rs3.8 billion.

The leasing and insurance arms of the company also fared well in terms of business growth and performance during the year.

Saudi Pak Investment Company is a joint venture of the government of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The two countries hold equal shareholding in the company. Its objective is to accelerate industrial development and to undertake investment related activities in Pakistan. The equity capital of the company is Rs6 billion.—APP