KARACHI, July 19: The 79th meeting of the board of directors of Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company Limited (Pak-Kuwait) was held recently under the chairmanship of Abdulazim M.A. Al-Shamali, a company press release stated.

Pak-Kuwait is an equal joint venture between governments of Pakistan and Kuwait, with the board comprising three members each nominated by Kuwait Investment Authority and GoP.

Zaigham Mahmood Rizvi, company’s MD, appraised the board of various measures being taken by the management to maintain its strategic position and revival of investment activities in Pakistan.

The Pak-Kuwait press statement said that the board appreciated the efforts of the management in maintaining the company’s AAA (triple A) rating — the company being the first financial institution in Pakistan to receive triple A credit rating.

Pak-Kuwait stated that it was actively involved in a number of diversified activities, which included short/long term finance, project finance, leasing, local capital market and treasury operations, etc. During the ensuring period, more than 20 facilities (funded and un-funded) were sanctioned and disbursed, in excess of Rs2 billion to various sectors, including chemical, communications, energy, fertilizer, sugar, textile and leather.

The board approved, during the meeting, a long-term financing facility up to Rs120 million in textile sector, a short-term financing facility up to Rs60 million in chemical sector an Istijrar facility in fertilizer sector amounting to Rs260 million and Pak-Kuwait’s participation in a TFC issue of up to Rs50 million for a textile concern.

Pak-Kuwait said that profit after tax had shown marked improvement during the period under the board’s review, i.e. January to June 2002. With net worth in excess of Rs5 billion, Pak-Kuwait, which commenced business in 1979, was the highest capitalized financial institution operating in the country, the company said, adding that it had paid a total of Rs2.682 billion in dividend payouts since inception, which was in excess of ten times of its initial paid-up capital of Rs250 million.