KARACHI: Arif Habib Corporation Ltd (AHCL) reported a 10.12 per cent increase in its consolidated after-tax profit to Rs5.986 billion during the six-month period ended Dec 31, 2024, compared to Rs5.43bn in the same period last year. This translated into earnings per share of Rs14.66, up from Rs13.30 a year ago.

On an unconsolidated basis, the corporation posted a profit after tax of Rs15.15bn (earnings per share of Rs35.94) compared to Rs4.51bn (earnings per share of Rs10.72) in the previous year.

Besides, in a “strategic move to enhance market liquidity and investor accessibility”, Arif Habib’s board of directors has proposed a 10-for-1 stock split, changing the face value of shares from Rs10 to Re1, the company said in a statement.

Barkat Frisian’s IPO

Barkat Frisian Agro Ltd, a joint venture between the Netherlands-based Frisian Egg Group and Pakistan’s Buksh Group, raised Rs1.23 billion as the book-building was oversubscribed by an unprecedented 16.25 times on Tuesday.

Due to the IPO’s overwhelming response from institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals, the strike price clocked in at Rs18.2 per share, a max 40pc higher than the floor price of Rs13.

Arif Habib Ltd is the lead manager and book runner for the IPO.

Several brokerages had issued almost unanimous calls to ‘subscribe’, which resulted in investor demand amounting to Rs14.25bn against the IPO’s book-building size of Rs1.23bn.

The successful bidders will be provisionally allotted only 75pc of the issue size, i.e., 50,801,250 shares, and the company will offer the remaining 25pc or 16,933,750 shares to the retail investors through the general public subscription on Feb 24 and 25.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2025