More listings of tech firms expected

The Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) board is an important innovation in Pakistan’s capital market, which will support financing needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by enabling them to raise debt and equity at a low cost, said Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Managing Director Farrukh Khan.

Speaking during the listing of Universal Network Systems on the GEM board of PSX on Monday, he said that the board would help the value chain of early stage financing, which was taking off at present.

“Early investors will have viable exit opportunity in listings on the GEM board,” he said. “The Pakistan Stock Exchange has worked hard under the guidance and support of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to launch the GEM board.”

This listing came in quick succession to the first listing, which took place 10 days ago, he said, adding that there was a robust pipeline for future listings.

On the occasion, Topline Securities CEO Mohammed Sohail added that the listing of the first e-commerce logistics company on the GEM board had opened new avenues for the technology sector as well as startups.

According to him, increasing the market participants was integral to the growth of PSX, GEM board and technology sector.

“We hope to see a number of technology as well as logistics players entering the market very soon and believe that this listing will go a long way towards supporting it.”

Arif Habib Limited CEO Shahid Ali Habib stated that the SME sector was the backbone of economic growth in any country.

The GEM board is a listing platform created to facilitate growth enterprises, whether small, medium or greenfield businesses, in their capital-raising needs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2021.

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