KARACHI, June 16: Dr Tariq Hassan, the chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), on Wednesday said that initiative taken by the Pakistan Society of Investment Professionals (PSIP) would encourage healthy competition among brokerage houses to write quality research and among banks to promote innovation.

The SECP chairman was the keynote speaker at the Annual Awards ceremony of PSIP held on Wednesday. Awards were distributed for two categories: Equity Research and Corporate Finance.

Money managers in Pakistan were asked to rank their favourite Equity Research House and the best Equity Research Analyst for the period July 2002 to June 2003. The Corporate Finance Awards to recognize the largest and most innovate dealmaker were decided by jury comprising three members.

For the Equity Awards a total of 22 fund managers were sent questionnaires of which 15 responded. The Corporate Finance Awards received a total of eight nominations for the two categories: Largest Finance House and Most Innovative Corporate Finance Transaction of the year.

The following were the winners: United Bank Limited as the largest corporate finance house; KASB Securities (Pvt) Limited for Corporate Finance Transaction of the year (Financial Restructuring of Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited); Invest Capital and Securities (Pvt) Limited as the Best Equity Research House and Mohammad Sohail, Head of Research at Invest Capital was declared the Best Equity Research Analyst.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Mohammad Shoaib, CFA, President PSIP informed the audience about the objective and the methodology of the annual awards.