Mansour calls for a referendum on draft constitution on 14, 15 January

Interim President Adly Mansour announced the date of the referendum on the amended 2012 Constitution to be held on 14 and 15 January.The people said their word out loud on 30 June, and I tell you, theres no turning back. The roadmap the future of this proud nation, Mansour said in an official speech to the Egyptian people on Saturday.He stressed the insistence of the Egyptian state to enforce the law, in order to be able to move the country forward.The interim government is pushing to approve the amended constitution in order to continue with the political roadmap laid out, in hopes of advancing the country to a real democratic system.Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Iran arrests ‘spy’ for Britain: Judicial official

Iranian security forces have arrested a "spy" working for the British government in Kerman, a judicial official in the southeastern province told the state IRNA news agency on Saturday.

The announcement came just a day after Iran's new envoy to Britain, Hassan Habibollah-Zadeh, held talks in London on his first visit since his appointment last month, which ended a two-year freeze in diplomatic relations.

"Through the efforts of Iranian security forces, an MI6 spy has been arrested," the head of the Kerman revolutionary court, Dadkhoda Salari, said, referring to Britain's foreign intelligence service

"He has met British intelligence officers in person 11 times, both inside the country and abroad, and provided them with intelligence," Salari said.

He said the suspect had confessed to his crimes and was now being tried.

Salari gave no details as to the suspect's nationality or identity.

Bale: "Ronaldo always gives me advice"

Gareth Bale is enjoying his finest moment since he joined Real Madrid, having begun to adjust to life outside the Premier League. "It is slightly different to what I was used to. It helps to have people like Luka Modric around", he admitted to BT Sport.

The Real Madrid forward has a close relationship with Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti and added that: "Carlo has his feet on the ground. He likes to have contact with the players".

The Welsh player spoke of his delight at working with Zinedine Zidane: "He's great. He's taken part in a few sessions and has still got it". Bale also praised CR7: "Cristiano is a fun person. He's always joking and giving me advice".

Bale revealed that his role model is a fellow Welshman: "Number 11 is my favourite and Giggs has always been my role model. When you're young you look at the top players like Giggs or Zidane. I used to watch Arsenal games with Bergkamp, Overmars and Pires. But my style of play is the one I want to focus on

The second ‘India Expo’ – a three-day exhibition

Despite all the hurdles, Indian participants are hopeful that visas and other obstacles in bilateral trade of the two neighbours will be resolved soon. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: The second ‘India Expo’ – a three-day exhibition – has commenced with an aim to strengthen bilateral trade relations between India and Pakistan. But the atmosphere was dampened as many Indian business executives who applied for the Pakistani visa could not come owing to non-issuance or delays.

Despite all the hurdles, Indian participants are hopeful that visas and other obstacles in bilateral trade of the two neighbours will be resolved soon.

Federation of Indian Exporting Organisation (FIEO), Joint Deputy Director General, Chandranath Som told The Express Tribune, “I can tell you that there is a tremendous amount of interest in the Indian community to do business with Pakistan and we have received a similar response from Karachi.”

There are 33 Indian companies participating in the exhibition which will be concluded on Sunday. Companies that are taking part in the exhibition are from diverse sectors such as textiles, spices, dairy and foods, cosmetics, footwear, jewellery and electrical equipments.

The exhibition is being supported by FIEO and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). FIEO is an apex body of Indian export promotion organisations. It was set up jointly by the ministry of commerce, government of India and the private trade and industry in the year 1965.

Indian businessmen participating in the ‘India Expo’ said that getting the visa on the last minute and taking a connecting flight from Dubai and Colombo is very costly and creates unnecessary problems.

Commenting on the difficulty of travelling, Hashimsons Abdul Rahim Khatri, a garment exporter from Mumbai said, “We got our passports just two days before the inauguration due to which a lot our colleagues had to cancel their trip. India and Pakistan must do away with these trivial issues if they want to benefit from each other’s trade potential.”

Dejected exhibitors said they were not expecting visa issues from Nawaz Sharif’s government as they believed his pro-business stance would ease visa restrictions for the business community. This time Indian participants were only granted a visa for 5-days as compared to the 15-day visa last year.

KCCI’s leadership, while inaugurating the second ‘India Expo’, said that the business communities of Pakistan and India must force their respective governments to improve trade relations. “The business communities of both countries must ask their respective governments, armies and bureaucracies to resolve all issues,” said KCCI former president Siraj Kassam Teli'

KSE recap: Leading business sectors outperform prior to year-end

Expectations of the spectrum auction coupled with high international call rates meant the telecom sector gained 75% (during the year), outperforming the index. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

With only 12 trading sessions left before the end of 2013, the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-Index has already posted a gain of 53.1%.

Topline Securities Research Analyst Vahaj Ahmad said that the telecom, food, cement and textile sectors have outperformed the benchmark index so far while chemical and electricity sectors remained the underperformers.

“Expectations of the spectrum auction coupled with high international call rates meant the telecom sector gained 75% (during the year), outperforming the index by a huge margin,” said Ahmad. “It was followed by the food sector, which gained 69% year-to-date, as consumerism grew [in the economy].”

The cement sector also continued to register gains in 2013 mainly because of rising retail prices and declining financial charges. The sector saw its market capitalisation increase Rs287 billion in 2013, which is up 67% on an annual basis.

Likewise, the textile sector gained 57% on the back of better regional demand, stable prices and declining interest rates, Ahmed noted.

“This sector gained further as the European Union (EU) approved a trade package for Pakistan, allowing some of the country’s textile products duty waiver on exports to the EU,” he said while adding that both cements and textiles remained one of the best performing sectors in the Karachi stock market for two consecutive years.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas sector showed ‘decent uptick’ for the first half of 2013. Its price performance was mainly affected by exploration and production (E&P) companies’ lower full-year profits because of one-time adjustment required by tax authorities, thus resulting in the sector posting 41% return so far, commented Ahmed.

Speaking about the progress of the commercial banks, he said that the current year had been a mixed bag for the banks as the discount rate took both up and down swings.

“With the central bank linking the minimum rate on savings to the repo rate, rising interest rates towards the end of 2013 did not add much to the sector’s returns: its market capitalisation grew 44% to Rs1.2 trillion,” he added.

Amid large and medium-size sectors with market capitalisation of Rs100 billion or more, chemicals and electricity companies underperformed in 2013 with returns of 15% and 36%, respectively.

“Due to declining margins, chemicals companies showed lacklustre performance. Keeping investors’ interest high with its dividend yield play, the electricity sector recorded above average performance in the first half of the year, as its yield spread against government-backed securities raised,” Ahmed said.

“This was further fuelled by circular-debt resolution, which saw many power producers stepping up cash payouts. However, cumulative 100 basis points discount rate hike in the last two monetary policy decisions saw investors turn away from this sector to seek risk-free investments,” he added.

Hospitality industry: Hotel One focusing on neglected cities, says CEO

“We are getting good results by providing affordable and quality services to people of such cities at 50% cheaper prices,” says Haseeb Gardezi.

LAHORE: Bleak investment environment shuns many hospitality chains from the industry in Pakistan. However, a large number of local and international names still believe that there is a hub of available opportunities for them to expand their operations by providing affordable and quality services.

In Pakistan, Hashoo Group is one of the leading names in hospitality services, owning five-star chains of hotels like Pearl Continental and Marriot. These chains are meant for a specific set of travellers and business-corporate groups. Apart from this, Hashoo group is penetrating the market via its ancillary, Hotel one, a three-star chain which, since its inception in 2008, has managed to operate 12 properties and is looking to touch 50 in the future.

“Our focus is on cities which were neglected in the past,” Haseeb Gardezi, chief executive officer Hotel One, told The Express Tribune. “We are getting good results by providing affordable and quality services to people of such cities at 50% cheaper prices.”

Hotel One currently operates in 9 cities — Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Murree. Out of a total of 12 properties, only four are being operated by Hotel One whereas the rest are operated by private investors via their franchise model. According to Gardezi, this model is being adopted all over the world, in order to create favourable business opportunities for business partners, and to create employment.

Due to the law and order situation, international travelling and tourism, which are believed to be the backbone of hospitality industry, is at its lowest. But at the same time, local travellers, who previously found it tough to find some reasonable and affordable accommodation in cities like Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Faisalabad, now have an affordable option. Before this such business delegations preferred to stay in major cities.

“We want to penetrate the rest of the country to become a brand which people look for when they travel. This will encourage many other players to follow in our footprints, which will create an atmosphere of competition. The ultimate beneficiaries of this would be the visitors.”

For giving one franchise, the company charges a fee of Rs3 million. According to Gardezi, Hotel One takes 10%-15% of net sales from their franchisee. Its share fluctuates from franchise to franchise depending on the covered area of the property. “For low number of rooms, our share is more compared to properties which have a greater number of rooms.”

The future plan for the company is to focus on some resorts in the country’s mountainous vacation spots, where currently there are very few hotels. The company has already developed a resort in Murree, and has pipeline projects to open in Abbotabad, Mansehra and Naran. The company is also planning to operate globally in the gulf, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia as a part of their future policy, though the first focus is to strengthen in Pakistan.

Crack down on urea hoarders, provinces Centre asks

Rs1,750 per bag, is the price of urea produced in the country, compared to Rs1,600 per bag, for imported urea.

LAHORE: The federal government has asked all provincial chief secretaries and secretaries of agriculture to ensure that urea is sold at its fixed price and take action against profiteers and hoarders involved in illegally making money during the current Rabi sowing season, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“A fertiliser mafia is creating artificial shortage of urea, forcing the farmers to pay an extra Rs250 to Rs300 per bag,” an official of the Ministry of Industries said, but asked not to be named. “This practice has been going on since November and the government should end the exploitation of farmers.”

In September, the Fertiliser Advisory Review Committee estimated that total demand of urea would be 3 million tons in the Rabi season. Of this, seven domestic producers would churn out 2.5 million tons and the National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industries and Production, would import the remaining 0.5 million tons.

The ministry argues that fertiliser producers have either reduced or withheld supply of the committed share, putting an extra burden on NFML, which is responsible to meet only 16.6% of the demand.

Difference in prices of urea produced in the country and the imported commodity is also contributing to the market stress like promoting black market, hoarding and exploitation of farmers.

Domestic producers are selling urea at Rs1,750 per bag to the dealers while imported urea is available for Rs1,600 per bag. Though chemical composition of the two products was the same, the market mafia was re-packing, without any check, the imported stuff in locally produced urea bags to pocket extra profit, the ministry official said.

According to him, domestic producers have also opted for a “tie-up marketing” policy to sell their products. A company has tied sales of urea with DAP while another one has tied sales of urea with CAN (calcium ammonium nitrate), resulting in overcharging in the open market.

To cope with the situation, the ministry has suggested that agriculture departments and the district administration should strictly monitor the market and discourage malpractices, which is causing shortage of urea.

“The ministry has decided to take up the matter with leading producers to end the tie-up policy,” the ministry official said.

“The office of Director General Agriculture Extension has failed to provide data of fertiliser supply, given to it by the urea manufacturers, to field formations for monitoring,” said an executive district officer for agriculture. “This provided an opportunity to the dealers to resort to hoarding and overcharge the consumers.”

Chaudhry Naimat Ali, a farmer from Kasur, said the government had fixed the price of imported urea at Rs1,600 per bag, but it was being sold at Rs1,800 to Rs1,900. “Farmers are being looted by the dealers in connivance with the civil administration,” he alleged.

A senior official of the ministry of industries clarified that it was providing urea to the dealers at Rs1,600 per bag with permission to take Rs50 per bag as profit from the farmers. “Because of poor check and balance on part of the district administration, we have received complaints that some unscrupulous dealers are pocketing Rs200 to Rs300 per bag,” he said.

Fauji Fertiliser Company General Manager Iqbal Bokhari argued that the company was meeting its commitment, but the suspension of gas supply was disturbing the production process. “We are receiving 88% of gas, but are producing at full capacity.”

He said the company had not tied up allied inputs with urea sales, adding the problem was in the distribution system, being managed by the civil administration.