Briefs

Briefs

Fauji Meat launches $75mln abattoir

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Fauji Meat Limited on Monday inaugurated country's largest Halal abattoir and meat processing facility in Gharo city of Thatta district, a statement said.

“Fauji Meat Limited is working with a mission to be a leading meat company by maintaining the spirit of excellence through sustained growth rate in all activities, competitive price, quality product and providing safe and conducive working environment for employees,” Fauji Group leadership told a group of journalists after the launching ceremony.

“Fauji Group is committed to put Pakistan on the map of the leading suppliers of quality meat and by-products.” 

Chairman Fauji Group, Lt. Gen. Khalid Nawaz, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) chief executive and managing director Lt. Gen. M. Haroon Aslam, and the Chief Operating Officer Raja Rehan Munnawar inaugurated the $75 million meat complex.

Spread over 47 acres, Fauji Meat’s plant is designed to meet the objective of processing high quality Halal meat, by-products and rendered products, with special focus to serve Halal food from farms to the international markets.

FML’s state of the art meat processing plant has the capacity to process 800 cattle and buffalo along with 1,400 goats and sheep in eight hour shift. It will be the only meat processing company in the country offering rendered products including bone, blood and meat and tallow, adhering to international quality standards.

 

BOC Group evaluating divestment

By our correspondent

KARACHI: BOC Group Limited (The Linde Group) is evaluating a potential divestment of its 59.99 percent shareholding in Linde Pakistan Limited (LPL), a bourse filing said on Monday.

“BOC Group (Linde) is in the preliminary evaluation stages and has not entered into any binding agreement or arrangement for the divestment of its shares in LPL. Linde Pakistan Limited is a member of The Linde Group, a world leading supplier of gas and engineering solutions, it added.

LPL manufacture and distribute industrial, medical and specialty gases, as well as welding products and provide a range of related services, including the installation of onsite plants, gas equipment, pipelines and associated engineering services.

The company sustained its overall turnover for the nine months period ending September 30, 2016 at the last year’s level of Rs2.9 billion with the performance being led primarily by the gases segment.  The gross profit for the nine months period stood at Rs663 million, exhibiting a growth of 4.2 percent as compared to the same period last year.

 

CROs to remain open on Saturdays

By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Company Registration Offices (CROs) of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), will remain open on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm with effect from February 1, 2017 onwards, a statement said on Monday.

The step has been taken to provide guidance / facilitation regarding availability of name, new company formation and filing of statutory returns, it added. The facilitation will be provided by the officers of Incorporation and Facilitation wing under the supervision of in-charge or joint registrar.

Accordingly, the Company Registration Office (CRO) Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi would remain open for the facilitation of public from 9am to 1pm on every Saturday. The idea behind this initiative is to encourage investors to adopt the corporate form of business organisation, enhance compliance rate and reduce the cost of doing business, it said.

The measure would also assist the government achieve its objective of formalisation of the business sector and documentation of the economy.

 

Rovio opens new games studio

HELSINKI: Finnish mobile games and animation company Rovio Entertainment said on Monday it was stepping up its hunt for new hit games by opening a studio in London to focus on new multiplayer games that would not rely on the firm´s Angry Birds brand.

Privately-held Rovio has struggled in recent years as profits from the Angry Birds franchise dropped, prompting deep job cuts and divestments.

But last year Rovio launched an animated Angry Birds 3D Hollywood film that it said did well at the box office and yielded new licensing deals.  "Our business is profitably growing, and the time has come for us to grow in numbers too," said Antti Viitanen, head of Rovio´s game studios.  The company said it was looking to build a team of about 20 people in London to focus on "massively multiplayer" online games - like Supercell´s Clash of Clans - with new intellectual property.

Rovio currently has around 200 employees at its four game studios in Finland and Sweden, and about 400 people in total.

The original Angry Birds game, in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal the birds´ eggs, remains the top paid mobile app of all time, and Rovio exploited the brand early on by licensing its use on a string of consumer products.

But with no new hit games, profits dropped and Rovio slashed more than 300 jobs in 2014 and 2015.In the first half of 2016, Rovio booked a small operating profit, compared with a loss a year earlier.  

 

Luxottica, Essilor agree on merger

MILAN/PARIS: Italy´s Luxottica and France´s Essilor have agreed a 46-billion euro ($49 billion) merger deal to create a global powerhouse in the eyewear industry with revenues of more than 15 billion euros, they said in a statement on Monday.

The deal, one of Europe´s largest cross-border tie-ups, brings together Luxottica, the world´s top spectacles maker with brands such as Oakley and Ray Ban, with Essilor, the world´s leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses.

Under the terms of the merger, Luxottica´s 81-year old founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, will take a stake of between 31 and 38 percent in the merged group through his family holding Delfin, becoming the biggest shareholder in the company.

Delfin will contribute its 62 percent stake in Luxottica at a ratio of 1 share in the Italian group for every 0.461 Essilor shares.  The French lens maker in turn will launch a mandatory exchange offer on all remaining Luxottica shares, at the same ratio, with the aim of delisting Luxottica´s shares.

 

Indonesia revises down trade surplus

JAKARTA: Indonesia´s statistics bureau on Monday slightly revised lower its figure for November´s trade surplus. The economy recorded a trade surplus of around $830 million in November, the bureau said, compared with the $838 million it reported a month ago.

November imports were revised up to $12.67 billion from $12.66 billion. Exports in November were maintained at $13.50 billion.  Earlier on Monday, the bureau reported that Southeast Asia´s largest economy had a trade surplus of $992.1 million in December.  The total surplus for 2016, based on preliminary December data, was $8.8 billion.  

 

Indian fuel consumption to hit 200MT

MUMBAI: India´s fuel consumption is likely to hit 200 million tonnes in 2016/17, an oil ministry executive said on Monday, in what would be the highest such level in at least 16 years.

"Demand for petroleum products is increasing as the economy grows. India has the best growth amongst the large economies in the world we have massive hunger for petroleum products," said oil ministry Additional Secretay A K Sawhney.

India´s fuel consumption surged 10.9 percent to 183.5 million tonnes in 2015/16.A level of 200 million tones would compare to over 750 million tonnes in the United States last year and 500 million tonnes in China.