Currency
Selling
Buying
USA
104.50
UK
138.94
104.30 138.68
Euro
116.39
116.17
Canada
81.04
80.88
Switzerland
107.36
107.15
Australia
78.30
78.15
Sweden
12.38
12.35
Japan
1.0173
1.0153
Norway
12.52
12.50
Singapore
77.75
77.60
Denmark
15.64
15.61
Saudi Arabia 27.86
27.81
Hong Kong
13.47
13.45
China
15.69
15.66
Kuwait
345.89
345.23
Malaysia
26.15
26.10
Newzealand
74.96
74.81
Qatar
28.70
28.64
UAE
28.45
28.40
Kr Won
0.0910
0.0908
Thailand
2.982
2.976
Dolmen declares 1st year dividend Rs2.3b STAFF REPORTER K ARACHI –South Asia’s first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Dolmen City REIT, managed by Arif Habib Dolmen REIT Management Limited, declared a Cash Dividend of Rs2.3 billion for the first full operational year ended June 30, 2016. This amounts to Rs1.04 per unit. The dividend was announced within four days of the close of financial year end. Dolmen City REIT which was listed last June, is a closed-ended, Shariah compliant Rental REIT Scheme offering investors the opportunity to become Unit holders (beneficial owners) of the Dolmen Mall - Clifton and The Harbour Front. The dividend is derived from the rental income of the properties owned by the REIT. Both Dolmen Mall and The Harbour Front have an occupancy rate of nearly 100% and house some of the best homebred and foreign brands along with the most prestigious local and multinationals corporate offices with an annual escalation in Rental Agreements.
Mari Petroleum dishes Rs9.718b rupees to govt I SLAMABAD —Based on approval from SECP, Board of Directors, Government of Pakistan (GoP) and shareholders in the Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) held on June 23, 2016, the Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) has redeemed preference shares held by GoP/others along with profit for the applicable period and an amount of Rs9.718 billion was paid to GoP on June 24, 2016 on account of redemption of preference shares. It is highlighted that the MPCL has already redeemed the preference shares issued to the minority shareholders of the Company. Early redemption of preference shares held by GoP and minority shareholders is a great achievement on part of the Company. With efficient management of cash flows, early redemption of preference shares will result in cost savings for the Company, whereas, GoP has benefitted in the shape of lump sum payment of Rs9.718 billion. Effective July 01, 2014, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved dismantling of Mari GPA with the condition that the un-distributable balance as on June 30, 2014 amounting to Rs 9.67 billion would be surrendered to GoP and minority shareholders in the form of preference shares as “quid pro quo” for dismantling of Mari GPA. In addition, Rs920 million provided for Mari Seismic Unit was also converted into preference share capital favoring GoP. These shares carried a profit rate of one year KIBOR + 3% and were to be redeemed within ten years.—PR
Shortfall expected in 2016-17 season cotton crop K ARACHI —The Karachi Cotton Association has ex- trading policy in cotton that is free export and free import pressed its concern over the devastating cotton crop failure in cotton season 2015-16 and expected shortfall in cotton crop 2016-17 season. Keeping in view the situation, the local textile industry is compiled to import row cotton from abroad to meet its requirement of basic raw material and ensure its contribution towards achieving the target of export fixed through exports of value added products as well as earning much needed foreign exchange for the country, said a statement on Monday. However, due to payment of three per cent Custom Duty and one per cent additional duty on import of cotton, cost of the basic raw material of the textile industry i.e. imported cotton is considerably increased due to which the local textile industry is unable to compete in the international markets. Reiterating its firm stand to ensure free
Oil prices edge up as Brent pushes further above $50
of cotton without any quantitative and qualitative restrictions, the KCA strongly urges upon for waiving all duties and taxes on import of cotton immediately in order to provide an opportunity to the local industry to meet their requirement of raw material from abroad in the backdrop of shortage of cotton crop at home and make their business competitive. The KCA also urges for taking concrete measures in all directions to increase cotton production in the years to come so as to meet the rising requirement of the local industry as well as leave adequate surplus cotton for exports to keep presence of Pakistan cotton in the international market and earn much needed foreign exchange for the country. The provision of export surplus will ensure international price of cotton to the Pakistani growers.—APP
NBP to ensure smooth ATM service during Eid holidays
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak presiding over a meeting special initiative and fast track execution of economic zone development and establishment of investment, insurance and holding company at CM Secretariat.
Askari maintains 99.7pc cash uptime for ATM network FINANCE REPORTER
I SLAMABAD —Askari Bank SINGAPORE—Crude prices ISLAMABAD—The National the length and breadth of strongly believes that techedged up in Asia on Monday, Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has the country (including small nology driven products are building on recent gains with Brent holding above $50 after Nigerian militants claimed fresh attacks on the country’s oil infrastructure. Prices seesawed last week, plunging in the immediate aftermath of Britain’s shock decision to leave the European Union but rallying after central banks worldwide vowed support to financial markets. At about 0630 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 33 cents at $49.32, while Brent rose 35 cents to $50.70. Analysts said trading would likely be light Monday owing to the Independence Day holiday in the United States. The commodity rallied at the end of last week as news filtered through of an attack on a restaurant in Dhaka, which compounded worries about terrorism days after suicide bombers hit Istanbul airport. On Sunday a Nigerian rebel group claimed five attacks on the country’s oil and gas infrastructure, threatening to scupper efforts to boost production. The Niger Delta Avengers have been bombing pipelines in a bid to win the delta region a bigger share of crude revenue and political autonomy.—APP
made special arrangements to ensure smooth Auto Teller Machine (ATM) services to facilitate its valued customers during Eid-ulFitr holidays across the country. “In the light of instructions issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the NBP like other banks, has ensured smooth round-the-clock ATM services during Eid holidays,” Spokesman of NBP, Syed Ibne Hassan told APP here. He said, the bank has deployed special monitoring teams for the smooth functioning of ATMs to facilitate its clients during Eid holidays. Currently, he said, more than 500 ATMs were installed at various locations across the country and further ATM expansions projects were also in pipeline, the spokesman said. Besides, he said, the NBP has around 1350 Online Branches which can issue ATM cards and their card holders can perform ATM transactions from NBP as well as other banks’ ATMs. Syed Ibne Hassan said, the NBP ATMs were mostly installed in up-country areas and our ATM network was spread towards
cities, towns, remote areas and army garrisons). The Bank, he said, has also deployed backup power arrangements like UPS/Generators etc to decrease the downtime of ATMs. It is pertinent to state here that due to the continuous efforts and measures by the bank the downtime of NBP’s ATMs is declining gradually and number of transactions is continuously increasing. Furthermore, the senior management of NBP reiterates the commitment for ensuring uninterrupted services through NBP ATMs. In-order to provide 24/7 services through ATMs especially during Eid and Public Holidays, NBP has devised effective mechanism for monitoring ATMs and mobilizing adequate resources for ATMs in order to timely address issues such as casing, hardware, connectivity and power related issues in ATMs. It is pertinent to state here that NBP has extended support agreement with its vendors providing ATM hardware maintenance which covers extended hours, weekend and public holidays’ support.—APP
the future of the banking industry. As such, the bank has aggressively pursued the expansion of its ATM network by adding 205 ATM in last two and a half years, bringing its total to 493 ATMs countrywide-an increase of 71 per cent. Further, ATM technology platform has also been upgraded to ensure maximum up-time. The bank has managed to maintain 95.3 per cent uptime with 99.7 per cent cash uptime for its ATM network in 2016. Askari Bank ‘s ATM network monitoring system is multi-layer whereby whenever any ATM is low at cash an auto generated SMS is generated for replenishment. Similarly SMS are generated for alert and resolution of any technical issue. In the second layer ATM performance is monitored 24/7 from a centralized location by teams of experienced professionals supported by technology vendors to ensure that issues are resolved within the minimum possible time and round the clock accessibility of ATM service is ensured for our valued customers.
BMW, Intel, Mobileye to make self-driving vehicles by 2021 STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—BMW Group, Intel, and Mobileye are joining forces to make self-driving vehicles and future mobility concepts become a reality. The three leaders from the automotive, technology and computer vision and machine learning industries are collaborating to bring solutions for highly and fully automated driving into series production by 2021. The future of automated driving promises to change lives and societies for the better. But the path to get to a fully autonomous world is complex and will require endto-end solutions that integrate intelligence across the network, from door locks to the data center. Transportation providers of the future must harness rapidly evolving technologies, collaborate with totally new partners, and prepare for disruptive opportunities. Together with Intel and Mobileye, the BMW Group will develop the necessary solutions and innovative systems for highly and fully automated driving to bring these technologies into series production by 2021. The BMW iNEXT model will be the foundation for BMW Group’s autonomous driving strategy and set the basis for fleets of fully autonomous vehicles, not only on highways but also in urban environments for the purpose of automated ridesharing solutions. BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye are convinced that automated driving technologies will make travel safer and easier. The goal of the collaboration is to develop futureproofed solutions that enable the drivers to not only take
their hands off the steering wheel, but reach the so called “eyes off” (level 3) and ultimately the “mind off” (level 4) level transforming the driver’s in-car time into leisure or work time. This level of autonomy would enable the vehicle, on a technical level, to achieve the final stage of traveling “driver off” (level 5) without a human driver inside. This establishes the opportunity for self-driving fleets by 2021 and lays the foundation for entirely new business models in a connected, mobile world. On July 1, 2016, the three partners were present at the BMW Group Headquarters in Munich to express their commitment to strive for an industry standard and define an open platform for autonomous driving. The common platform will address level 3 to level 5 automated driving and will be made available to multiple car vendors and other industries that could benefit from autonomous machines and deep machine learning. The companies have agreed to a set of deliverables and milestones to deliver fully autonomous cars based on common reference architecture. Near term, the companies will demonstrate an autonomous test drive with a highly automated driving (HAD) prototype. In 2017 the platform will extend to fleets with extended autonomous test drives. “Today marks an important milestone for the automotive industry as we enter a world of new mobility. Together with BMW Group and Intel, Mobileye is laying the groundwork for the technology of future mobility that enables fully autonomous driving to become a reality within the next few years,” said Mobileye Co-Founder, Chairman and CTO Professor Amnon Shashua.
GWADAR: Pakistan navy soldiers stand guard at Gwardar Port. Gwadar Port is a warm-water, deep-sea port situated on the Arabian Sea in Balochistan province of Pakistan. China and Pakistan agreed to build China-Pakistan Economic Corridor a major and pilot project under the Belt and Road Initiative, to connect the Pakistani Gwadar Port with Kashgar city in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
KARACHI: Sui Southern Gas Company hosted an Iftar dinner at a local hotel in the honour of media fraternity.
Pakistan, KSA economic cooperation increasing K ARACHI —President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) Mian Zahid Hussain has said the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are extremely friendly as Islamabad is Saudi Arabia’s closest Muslim ally. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have extensive commercial, cultural, religious, political, and strategic relations since decades, he said. Mian Zahid Hussain said this while speaking at an Iftar dinner held in honour of Saudi Consul General Muhammad Abdullah Abdul Diam. The positive role of KSA in stability cannot be overemphasised which is widely acknowledged by government and people of Pakistan, he said. Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani, Deputy Governor SBP Qazi Abdul Muqtadar, DG Customs Evaluation Syed Tanveer Ahmed, Director Evaluation Wasif Ali Memon and others were present on the occasion. At the occasion, the consult general said that Pakistan is an important trade part-
ner while majority of the remittances being received in Pakistan comes from KSA. He said that defence and economic cooperation between both brotherly Islamic states continue to increase and that decision of KSA to end dependence on oil economy will open new avenues of cooperation to government and private sectors of Pakistan. He lauded the economic policies of Pakistan which has helped the economy to take off in a short span. He said that KSA wants to become partner in economic corridor and extend it to Red Sea and Africa. KSA has ample opportunities in steel and food processing sectors which should be explored by Pakistani businessmen who will get all out cooperation in my country, he said. Agha Siraj Durrani said that Saudi Arabia is a great friend that has always helped Pakistan during hard times. Over two million Pakistanis employed in Saudi Arabia send home remittances in billions of dollars annually, he added.—Agencies
Brexit affects us all in many ways: IPR SALIM AHMED LAHORE—The Institute for Policy Reforms, Monday, released a comprehensive fact sheet on the effects of UK’s exit from the European Union. It analyzes its effects on the world economy and on Pakistan. The Fact Sheet states that Brexit vote also challenges the way economic policy has been run in recent decades. Pakistan has already felt Brexit’s effect. Soon after the vote, PSX lost about 1700 points. It is still about a thousand points below its pre-Brexit level. It is unlikely that foreign investment will return soon. The Fact Sheet states that Pakistan’s exports will suffer a twofold blow. Consumer demand in Britain will dampen from lower growth. A cheaper pound will increase the value of foreign goods in UK. Pakistan’s main concern is whether exports to UK will lose the duty concessions under EU’s GSP plus, and if so, when. UK was a strong advocate for Pakistan’s GSP plus case in Brussels. GoP must lobby with UK for its continuation. At over 1.5 billion, UK has a share of over 7 per cent in our total export. Workers’ remittance could also decline, espe-
cially if unemployment grows in UK. Remittance from UK is about 13 per cent of total. FDI from UK will likely decline. They have fallen since 2007, in line with the overall trend of FDIs in Pakistan. Pakistan is one of the largest recipient of UK’s overseas development assistance. Prolonged loss in economic growth could lead UK to reconsider its ODA level. This would affect assistance to Pakistan. Above are the effects from loss of growth
better than others with open borders. The Fact Sheet states that recent policy worldwide has reduced investment in people. Economic exclusion has as much to do with policies at home as with openness. However, a consensus on market fundamentalism in recent decades has put this issue beyond debate. Warnings about EU exit didn’t affect the leave voters as their options had been closed off a long time ago. An uninformed debate placed the blame solely on the single market rather than on domestic policies. Pakistan must heed this lesson. Economic policy in Pakistan has two objectives. It satisfies guidance from multilateral institutions or serves elite interest. The majority of people feel left out as they do not figure in government plans. Left out of economic mainstream, they have little stake in the present order. This is a recipe for instability. Brexit’s economic effects partly depend on the method for separation to be adopted by
Pakistan’s exports to suffer a two-fold blow after Brexit in the UK economy. A spillover to other economies will heighten the effect on Pakistan, as it would for the rest of the world. An analysis of why UK voters opted out of EU holds a deeper lesson for everyone. Educated and skilled people voted to stay. Unskilled voted leave. The campaign broad brushed serious issues of immigration, globalization, and technology into nationalistic soundbites. There was no debate on the real issue of why some people cope
UK and EU. Both parties must try to quickly restore certainty in the markets. Under EU law, Britain will have little say on the terms of its departure. A majority vote of EU members will decide. An outline agreement that sets the contours of future EU-UK relations and the extent of their cooperation, would help restore market confidence. The Fact Sheet hopes that EU will retain close trade links with UK. After initial volatility, markets have recovered somewhat. The Pound is 10% below its pre-Brexit level and the London Stock Exchange Index, FTSE, has recovered. Other effects on UK and world economy have yet to unfold. Investment decisions are on hold in UK, and partly in EU. In fact, foreign investors may be pulling out of UK. This may lead to loss of thousands of jobs. Lower economic growth in UK and EU could lead to an economic downturn. Experts forecast a 30% chance that the US will be in recession within a year. Access to capital for developing countries will squeeze as money moves to safe havens. Central banks have helped greatly in restoring order, but they are limited by already low interest rates.