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South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE) held the third ‘Pakistan IPO Summit 2013’ in the series of IPO Summit events on Monday 29th April 2013, at Pearl Continental Hotel, Lahore. The summit was held under the auspices of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as Lead Patron and in collaboration with all the capital market institutions of the country like Karachi Stock Exchange Limited (KSE), Lahore Stock Exchange Limited (LSE), National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL), Shajar Capital Pakistan (Private) Limited, AKD Securities Limited and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).
The purpose of the summit was to share broader knowledge about the IPO market and other technical aspects related to the IPO process. “SAFE has been involved with the initiative of the IPO Summit for the last three years”, said Mr. Aftab Ahmad Ch., Secretary General SAFE and Managing Director Lahore Stock Exchange. “For us, organizing events such as the IPO Summits is just another effort in many dedicated efforts that we make to broaden the scope of our domestic and regional capital markets", he said. The event provided a unique platform to build cooperation between the representatives of the companies which are considering public offerings and the investment/financial services industry.
The event was very much appreciated by the financial and corporate sector of Pakistan and attracted representations from 27 potential issuers along with 50 entities from the corporate finance fraternity including regulators, stock exchanges, investment banks, accounting firms, legal practitioners, underwriters, the brokerage industry and other institutions etc. thus, making the event a premier networking and information exchange platform. As per the track record of the last IPO Summits, about two dozen potential companies had been identified out of which few are known to be in the process of due diligence from the financial advisors. They are now weighing their options for the ideal time frame for listing.
Mr. Aftab further expressed that the ultimate success of these efforts by SAFE would depend upon the active role of the financial advisory companies who are in the business of enabling and preparing potential companies for the IPO market.
He also thanked all the patrons involved in making this summit a success. “We are very thankful that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) continues to be our lead patron in the effort to enlist more and more companies at our Exchanges. Besides this, the help from our other capital market institutions, financial advisory firms and other notable corporations in the shape of the sponsorships has also been vital” he said. Other sponsoring corporations included HASCOL Petroleum Limited, Fauji Fertilizers Company Limited, Mughal Steel, Treet Corporation and Eden Housing Limited.
The IPO market has a long gestation period before the actual IPOs take place and it will be after some time that companies showcased in SAFE’s IPO events are able to make a debut in our markets. Nevertheless, the organization of these Summits has enabled the establishment of a direct contact with many enterprises which, once listed, do have the potential of becoming the next generation of the blue chip companies. It is believed that events such as these shall help to establish the culture of listing on solid foundations and each and every enterprise in Pakistan considers listing as the first step in the journey of rewarding its stakeholders-the investors, the consumers and the society on the whole.
