ASM Express

26/03/2024

Systems Limited, one of Pakistan's largest software developers, announced a profit after tax of Rs8.69 billion for the year 2023, marking a notable increase of over 31%.
The company's consolidated earnings for the same period of the previous year stood at Rs6.63 billion, as reported in the profit and loss accounts submitted to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.
Consequently, the earnings per share (EPS) rose to Rs29.86 in the reviewed period, compared to Rs23.61 in the corresponding period last year.
Additionally, the board of directors approved a final cash dividend of Rs6 per share, equivalent to 60%, for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023.
Systems Limited's revenue from customer contracts also witnessed a significant growth, soaring by 68% to Rs53.44 billion during the year ending December 31, 2023, compared to Rs31.76 billion in the preceding year.

02/10/2023

29/05/2023

During a session titled "The Pentagon, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and Crashed UFOs" at the SALT iConnection 2023 conference, Garry Nolan, Ph.D., a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, claimed that aliens have been visiting and residing on Earth for decades.
While Dr. Nolan is an immunologist by profession, he has delved into the subject of extraterrestrial life due to his previous research related to debunking the idea that the Atacama humanoid skeleton was of alien origin.
This research led him to establish connections with pilots who had encountered unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and the associated electromagnetic fields.

07/02/2023

Gas circular debt clearance (07th Feb’23)

Longing for Valuations

The government is considering settling the outstanding gas sector circular debt and discussed the plan with the IMF in this regard. Moreover, the amount of settled circular debt is expected to come back to the gov’t via dividends, either fully funded or at a 13% cost. In this regard, we have conducted a sensitivity for the potential dividends from state-owned enterprises including OGDC and PPL.

Scenario-1
A cash injection by the incumbent govt of PKR 543bn to Sui companies (SNGP and SSGC), which will then be re-routed to OGDC and PPL for dividend declaration of PKR 75.80/share and PKR 33.08/share, respectively. The fiscal cost of this scenario for the govt is estimated at PKR 71.4bn.

Scenario-2
As per news flow, while the cash injection by the incumbent govt to Sui companies will remain the same (PKR 543bn) in this scenario, resulting in dividend declaration by OGDC and PPL, the fiscal cost to the govt will be nil. This is owed to a potential minority shareholder dividend of PKR 58bn for OGDC and PKR 30bn for PPL, which will take the total payout by OGDC to PKR 89.17/share, and PKR 44.10/share by PPL. Taking cue from that, we estimate that OGDC’s minority dividend is expected at PKR 57.5bn which will be funded via encashment of PKR 23bn via PIBs, and the remaining PKR 35bn through cash. While for PPL, the minority dividend is expected to be completely funded through the balance sheet (PKR 30bn).

We also find it important to mention that neither cash nor a non-cash settlement would affect the minority shareholders’ dividends. In the former case, the cash will be raised through the issuance of T-bills and given to Sui companies as a grant. Whereas in the second scenario, the book entries will be made via a commitment paper whereby all the accounts will be net off, with minority shareholders receiving their dividends.

Moreover, we believe that this is the first phase of circular debt clearance, while we expect that in the second phase of clearance, the remaining receivables of OGDC and PPL will also be settled by means of the same mechanism. We do highlight that post clearance of circular debt phase 1, the remaining receivables of OGDC and PPL would be PKR 62bn (PKR 14.31/share) and PKR 371bn (PKR 104.79/share) respectively.

We also believe a hike in gas tariff will also significantly support the cash earnings of the companies alongside this gas circular debt clearance, which was a key reason behind depressed valuations at the market. Therefore, a materialization of these two events can re-rate the E&P sector and help aid the index. OGDC and PPL were one of our top picks, as mentioned earlier in our model portfolio highlighted in the 2023 strategy note.

14/12/2022

Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL), a subsidiary of The Attock Oil Company Limited, on Tuesday said it has shut down one of its main distillation units on a temporary basis amid low demand for Furnace Fuel Oil (FFO).

ATRL becomes the second major refinery in the country to either shut or limit its operations in recent days. Last week, Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) announced to shut down its operations from December 10 for approximately 20 days.

In its filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), ATRL said: “Due to ullage constraints resulting from low demand for FFO, ATRL is temporarily shutting down its main distillation unit for approximately eight days”.

“Consequently, as a result of this shutdown refinery will be operating at a capacity of 35%."

14/12/2022

Argentina into the Finals 6 Times in FIFA World Cup History

13/12/2022

Pakistan will likely secure a multibillion-dollar financial support package from long-time ally Saudi Arabia this month, two sources said, as the country's ninth review of a $7 billion IMF bailout ran into snags.
The two finance ministry officials said the Saudi package would include deposits boosting the country's foreign reserves and oil on deferred payments.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said earlier he hoped talks with Saudi Arabia would happen soon.
"We are expecting that we will, God willing, get financial support from Saudi Arabia, most likely this month," one of the senior officials told Reuters, adding it would be around a $4 billion package.
"Some of that package will go to our reserves and the rest is oil and some other commodities on deferred payments," he said.
"Pakistan has brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia. Both countries have helped each other in times of need," a finance ministry media official told Reuters, without elaborating or giving any further details.
Pakistan's economy is facing a balance of payment crisis. The central bank reserves have fallen to $6.7 billion — barely enough for a month of imports.

25/11/2022

Elon Musk has hired George Hotz, a man who earns sudden fame for hacking into iPhone in 2007, to fix Twitter.

In 2007 Hotz was the first person ever to unlock an iPhone.

Musk hired Hotz to fix the bug in the search option on Twitter in 12 weeks.

Hotz in a tweet stated, “I’m down for a 12-week internship at Twitter for the cost of living in SF. It’s not about accumulating capital in a dead world, it’s about making the world alive.”