KARACHI: Fauji Fertiliser Company Limited (FFC), the producers of ‘Sona’ Urea, gears up to set up a plant in Tanzania.

In a filing with the stock exchange, the FFC’s company secretary stated that the board of directors on Friday “endorsed signing of Consortium Agreement between Fauji Fertiliser Company Limited, Haldor Topsoe A/S (HTAS), Denmark and Ferrostaal Industrial Projects GmbH (FIP), Germany, for setting up an offshore fertiliser project in Tanzania.”

The board of directors of FFC also approved sale of one per cent equity stake of the company in Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) aggregating to 9.34 million ordinary shares to Fauji Foundation, at the closing market price prevailing on Oct 3. The stock in FFBL closed trading on Friday, Oct 3 at Rs40.16.

Analysts said that FFC was using its spare cash for investment in diverse field to augment earnings.

“Only last year, FFC completed acquisition of 100pc stake in Al-Hamd Foods Limited, a frozen fruits and vegetable project with an equity investment of Rs586m,” he said.

The same year, company acquired 43.15pc equity stake in Askari Bank Limited for Rs10.5bn, representing the company’s first-ever venture into the financial sector.

The FFC Energy Limited, the country’s first wind-power electricity generation project, initially wholly owned by FFC, also commenced commercial operations in 2013.

At the close of financial year 2013, FFC held Rs12.8bn in share capital and about an equal amount in reserves. The balance sheet carried net liquid funds in the sum of Rs5.3bn.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2014