KASB Group to bring $40m foreign investment

KARACHI: The KASB Group has decided to establish a new financial holding company which will bring in foreign investment of $40 million.

The new company KASB Finance is part of a restructuring plan which includes investment of $80 million and will be completed in multiple phases, the Group said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Asia International Finance, a China-based group with assets of over $3 billion, will invest $40 million in the first phase of the plan.

“Foreign investors’ commitment shows the group’s strength as a leading franchise and the country as a lucrative foreign direct investment avenue despite geopoliticial and macroeconomic challenges,” said KASB Chairman Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country dropped by 39 per cent to $2.03 billion during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year from $3.33 billion in the same period of last year.

The new business will become a holding company for KASB Bank, KASB Securities, KASB Funds, KASB International and KASB Modaraba.

The KASB Group has operations across a broad spectrum of the financial services sector. The group’s flagship KASB Bank has a network of 100 branches and an asset base of Rs60 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2010.