Telecard’s Supernet to go public next month

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday gave a go-ahead to Telecard Limited’s subsidiary Supernet Limited (SNL) for its bookbuilding dates for proposed listing.

Telecard Limited made the announcement in a notification sent to the PSX. "We are pleased to inform you that Supernet Limited, a subsidiary of Telecard Limited has received clearance from PSX for the bookbuilding dates for its proposed listing,” a bourse notification said. "Accordingly, the book building dates have been set as Tuesday April 12, 2022 and Wednesday April 13, 2022,” it added.

Telecard Limited was the highest traded stock during the day at 13.11 million shares. Its price went up by nearly 7 percent. “Given startups raised $400 million and e-commerce in Pakistan is expected to grow manyfold over the next few years, cyber security would be a key area for growth for Supernet given the vast amount of customer data that will be generated,” said Adnan Sami Sheikh, AVP, Pak Kuwait Investment Company.

Pakistan’s National Cyber Security Policy 2021 would also be enabling cyber security providers. "The scope of Pakistan’s National Cyber Security Policy is to secure the entire cyberspace of Pakistan including all information and communication systems used in both public and private sectors,” he said.

“This is expected to boost local spending on cyber security in the future,” Sheikh added. Supernet was also looking to capitalise on the security challenges Pakistan faces in cyberspace.

In its corporate briefing, Supernet mentioned high profile cyber attacks, for instance the attacks on National Bank and the Federal Board of Revenue.

“(Cyber attacks are) increasingly being seen as a national security threat (and) growing awareness of cyber threats and risks of breaches and business disruption in all sectors of industry,” the company’s document read.

"Local spending on cyber security is set to grow rapidly in enterprise, government and defence segments, and Supernet/SuperSecure are now well positioned to benefit

from this upsurge,” the document read.