KARACHI, Dec 18: Six companies, including the much-publicised Callmate Telips Telecom (CTTL), have been suspended by the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) during the year 2006. That works to just about a third of the 18 companies that were placed under suspension the previous year.

Information gathered from the KSE reveals that just one company Sindh Alkalis, was suspended in 2004 while none of the corporates were disallowed trading in 2003. The year before that four companies were suspended. And a major garbage cleaning exercise was undertaken in 2001, when 16 companies were swept off the trading list.

A peculiarity of all, except perhaps the last Callmate, looks to be their insurmountable losses and sometimes all assets of the company having disappeared except the name plate. Such companies include the four Tawakkal group companies suspended in 2001: First Tawakkal Modaraba; Tawakkal Polyester; Tawakkal Limited and Tawakkal Garments. It is difficult to fathom, how many of the other such suspended companies performed the disappearing act, but some of the names of suspended companies since the start of this decade could ring a bell: Kohinoor Looms; Zahur Textile; Mian Mohammmed Sugar; Ayaz Textile; Mohib Exports; Data Agro Limited; Muslim Ghee; Ittefaq Textile; Harnai Woollen; Bela Engineers; National Fibres; Tariq Cotton; Turbo Tec; Cass Pak Industries; Sindh Alkalis; Colony Woollen; Schon Textile; Crescent Spinning; Modern Textile; Pakistan Northern Insurance; Awan Textile; Taga Pakistan; Pakistan Dairies; Regal Ceramics; Junaid Cotton; Alif Textile; Apex Fabrics; Myflp Video Industries; Mehran Jute; Azmat Textile; Bahawalpur Textile and LTV Capital Modaraba.

Each suspended company should have its own interesting tale to tell. But a few that come quickly to the mind include those of Pan-Islamic Steamship — which once made good profits and paid substantial dividends to its shareholders. But the company’s mainstay, Safina-i-Abid and Safina-i-Hujjaj after innumerable ferries taking the Hajjis to the Holy Land fell on old age and had to be put to bed. Standard Insurance also was a case of interest since for many years before its demise the company made scarcely any money from the core insurance business and lived entirely off the rent income that company earned from letting out its offices of the Victorian Era stone-crafted two-floor building on the then McLeod (now I I Chundrigar) Road in Karachi.

Aside from Callmate, other five companies suspended during the year 2006 include Caravan East Fabrics; Adil Polypropylene; Ghulam Mohammad Dadabhoy; Kashmir Edible Oils and Fayzan Manufacturing Modaraba. Unlike the rest which have gone for ever, Callmate has been suspended for a period of 60 days. Only the resumption of trading in the scrip will show its price pattern, but other suspended companies seem to have died a silent death. Did the shareholders recover any money from those companies? “It’s an old record and we will have to see case by case”, said a stock exchange official. But it is difficult to visualize a rupee passing into the pockets of small investors. Most of the companies were known to be deep in debts and deficit. In the order of disbursements, shareholders (being owners) stand at the end of the queue and only are entitled to that which is left after all interests, including those of individual and creditor banks, have been satisfied. Banks could scarcely have had the option other than to write-off debts and most sponsors are known to have sold off the lucrative real estate (land) and made good their escape.