The consolidated sales of Azgard Nine Limited (ANL) is expected to register a growth of 40 percent in 2008, with a contribution of 151 million dollars and 112 million dollars from textiles and fertiliser operations, respectively.
CEO of ANL, Ahmed Shaikh stated this at an analysts briefing held at a local hotel in Karachi on Wednesday. ANL held an analysts briefing primarily to discuss the company's business strategy and also to reflect upon its first quarter of 2008 (1Q-2008) financial results. For its textile business, ANL has a multiple acquisition strategy in overseas markets.
"This would enable the company to climb the value chain by moving into product branding and would further improve its risk profile," Umer Bin Ayaz and Usman Zahid, analysts at JS Global Capital Limited said.
Ahmed Shaikh, in his presentation said that the company's subsidiary Pak American Fertiliser (PAFL) operates one of the newest and lowest cost urea manufacturing plants in Pakistan. Currently, the plant is operating at 110 percent of its name plate capacity. Also, the company plans to carry out de-bottlenecking activities in 2H2009 to further increase its urea production capacity by 20 percent. Moreover, the company informed analysts of its plan to set-up a new phosphatic fertiliser plant by 1H2010. The new plant will have a capacity of manufacturing 300,000 to 400,000 tons SSP (Single Super Phosphate), will be established at a cost of Rs 2.2 billion and will have a payback period of 2.5 years.
The ANL, with its high performance management team, is one of the fast growing companies in the country shown by its sales growth of 84 percent in 2007 and 69 percent in 2006 from 15 percent growth in top line in 2005.
Major shareholders of the company are the Shaikh Family with a stake of 40 percent and the JS Group with 26 percent. The Shaikh Family, founders of Colony Group, is one of the oldest business families in South Asia, having a business history of over 100 years. The Shaikh Family has owned and managed various businesses in sectors including banking, power, cement, fertiliser and textiles and now textiles and fertiliser are main businesses of the group.
The JS Group is among Pakistan's most diversified financial services groups and their activities include investment banking, FI, equity sales & trading, asset management, insurance and they also have interests in infrastructure, telecom & media, transportation, resources and real estate.
