CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW
During the financial year of the Company the economy has witnessed challenges of fiscal consolidation, monetary tightening, geopolitical tensions, and persistently high inflationary pressure. Some of the measures taken by the government to address the serious economic challenges and meet IMF conditions have created additional difficulties for businesses and industries, with import restrictions, historically high discount rates, and increasing energy costs further compounding the situation. On a positive note the decline in overall inflation has provided the space for the State Bank of Pakistan to reduce discount rates.
The agriculture sector has shown a growth of 6.25 percent in 2023-24 compared to 2.27 percent last year, with wheat, cotton and rice production witnessing record growths. In contrast, sugarcane production declined slightly by 0.4%, with sugarcane production standing at 87.6 million metric tons compared to last year’s 88.0 million metric tons. The total sugarcane crushed in Pakistan was recorded at 67.65 million metric tons (FY 2023: 65.06 million metric tons), whereas total sugar production was 6.76 million metric tons (FY 2023: 6.66 million metric tons). Due to favorable weather conditions in many regions, sugar production in Sindh improved to 2.022 million metric tons (FY 2023: 1.745 million metric tons).
The industrial sector continued to face a slowdown that also impacted both the sugar and packing industries. The Company continued to manage its resources diligently and serve its diversified customer base of its Sugar and Paper divisions. The Company focused on quality, volume growth and product development to meet the demands of its customers and create value for its stakeholders. This includes using renewable energy to provide power for its production activities.
I am pleased to report that the Board of Directors has fulfilled its duties and responsibilities with dedication during the year, focusing on the major risk areas for the Company. The Board, including the Independent Directors, remains fully aware of its responsibilities and performs them with the necessary diligence.
The Board emphasizes strong corporate governance. An independent Internal Audit Department uses a risk-based approach, reporting quarterly to the Board Audit Committee to address and follow up on improvement areas. All Directors actively engaged in strategic planning, policy development and decision-making, ensuring significant issues were addressed. To further strengthen its strategic guidance of the Company, the Board plans to conduct a strategy meeting during the coming months.
The Board also carried out and discussed the annual self-evaluation in line with the requirements of the Code of Corporate Governance.
The Company is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. It prioritizes DE&I in its ethical and sustainable practices, focusing on increasing diversity through inclusive recruitment strategies and diverse interview panels.
The Board and Management are committed to protecting shareholder value in these challenging times through various initiatives, including cost control and diversification, while supporting community development. I would like to thank all our stakeholders, especially customers, suppliers, bankers, shareholders and employees, as well as my Board colleagues, for their trust, commitment, support and hard work.
Arif Faruque
Chairman
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mr. Arif Faruque
Chairman
Mr. Arif Faruque is a Swiss – qualified Attorney-at-Law, and also holds Masters degrees in both Law and Business Administration from the United States of America. He recently completed the Owner President Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is the Chief Executive of Faruque (Pvt.) Ltd. He is on the Board of Directors of Cherat Packaging Ltd. and Cherat Cement Company Ltd. Besides the above, he is also a member of the Board of Governors of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Mr. Aslam Faruque
Chief Executive
Mr. Aslam Faruque is a graduate with a major in Marketing. He is the Chief Executive of Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd., Unicol Ltd. and UniEnergy Ltd. He is on the Board of Directors of Cherat Packaging Ltd. Greaves Airconditioning (Pvt.) Ltd. and Greaves Engineering Services (Pvt.) Ltd.
In the past, he has served as the Chairman and Senior Vice Chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association – Center. He also served as Chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association Sindh Zone, and Director of Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd., State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan and Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation.
Mr. Amer Faruque
Director
Mr. Amer Faruque is a Bachelor of Science (BS) graduate in Business Administration majoring in Management / Marketing from Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He is the Chief Executive of Cherat Packaging Limited. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Faruque (Pvt.) Ltd., Greaves Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Greaves CNG (Pvt.) Ltd. and Executive Director Marketing of Cherat Cement Co. Ltd. In the past he has served as a member of the Board of Governors of Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and the Centre of International Private Enterprise (CIPE). He is also the Honorary Consul of Brazil in Peshawar.
Ms. Farzana Faruque
Director
Ms. Farzana Faruque graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design and Communications. She later pursued her pasion for nutrition and fitness and got certified as a Health Coach and Fitness Trainer. Ms. Farzana, founded an indoor cycling fitness studio and co-founded a Health and Detox food brand in 2015. She is also the social media and marketing manager for Studio X. Her expertise allow her to be able to grow her brands and become a known name throughout Pakistan.Ms. Farzana Faruque graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design and Communications. She later pursued her pasion for nutrition and fitness and got certified as a Health Coach and Fitness Trainer. Ms. Farzana, founded an indoor cycling fitness studio and co-founded a Health and Detox food brand in 2015. She is also the social media and marketing manager for Studio X. Her expertise allow her to be able to grow her brands and become a known name throughout Pakistan.
Mr. Wasif Khalid
Director
Mr. Wasif Khalid is a fellow member of Institute of Chartered Accountant of Pakistan (ICAP) and fellow member of Pakistan Institute of Public Finance Accountants (PIPFA). He has also done his Masters in Business Administration (Marketing and Operations Management) from Hamdard University, Karachi.
He is the Director and Chief Financial Officer of Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd. and Zensoft (Pvt.) Ltd. Mr. Khalid is also serving on the Board of Directors of Greaves Airconditioning (Pvt.) Ltd., Greaves CNG (Pvt.) Ltd., Greaves Engineering Services (Pvt.) Ltd. and as an Executive Director Finance of Unicol Ltd.
He has contributed immensely towards development of financial models and implementation of new projects. He has been actively involved with the regulators, practitioner and leading Shariah scholars of the industry for developing the commercial industry transactions. Prior to Ghulam Faruque group, Mr. Khalid was associated with various companies in Middle East and in Pakistan he worked with one of Big 4 audit firms. He has over 22 years’ worth of rich experience in financial restructuring and modeling, project financings, operational management and internal audit.
He has served as a General body member of FPCCI, as Head of cost and budget committee of PSMA-Sindh Zone and served as Member committee agriculture development and reforms at Ministry of Industries and Production and Kisan Board on behalf of PSMA- Sindh Zone. He also worked as a member of the sugar monitoring committee formed by the Federal Board of Revenue.
Mr. Hasan Reza Ur Rahim
Director
Mr. Rahim is an accomplished professional who has 40 years of domestic and international experience in the Banking and Financial Services industry. He brings with him 10 years of public listed company board and governance knowledge and is currently serving on the boards of Atlas Insurance Ltd. and Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd. He has also served on the boards of Cyan Ltd., Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd. (DH Corp), Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd., Hascol Ltd., and Hum Networks Ltd.
Previously Mr. Rahim was the Executive Director in-charge of the Chairman Office of the Dawood Group which, consisted of several listed and unlisted companies and is one of the largest entrepreneurial groups in Pakistan. DH Corp is the flagship investment entity of the Dawood Group which has a large minority shareholding in Engro Corporation Limited.
During his banking career, Mr. Rahim spent 15 years at JPMorgan where he held several senior positions both in Pakistan and abroad. His accomplishments include assisting in establishing and heading the Global Corporate Bank in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, was Senior Country Officer of Pakistan and was an integral part of the Regional Corporate Finance team based in Singapore. He has originated, led and executed large and complex Mergers & Acquisition transactions and Privatizations totaling over USD 5.0 billion, Sovereign Debt and Bond issues of over USD 2.0 billion in the Telecom, Airlines, Banking, Oil & Gas and Petrochemical industries.
Earlier in his career Mr. Rahim, also held senior positions with MashreqBank psc and ANZ Grindlays Bank plc. He has worked in several international locations that included Zurich, Singapore, Bahrain and Dubai.
He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware in USA; is also an IFC certified trainer to conduct corporate governance training; is a Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance certified Director and on it’s faculty.
Mr. Abdul Shakoor Shaikh
Director
A. Shakoor Shaikh has been part of Civil Services of Sindh as well as Pakistan for the last 28 years including 12 years Services experience in Social Sector & Community Welfare. After doing Bachelors in Computer System Engineering (B.E) and Masters in Business Administration (MBA), he joined Civil Services. He has enough exposure to different managerial capacities dealing with, Information Technology, Finance, Operations, Coordination, Infrastructure Development, Maintenance of Law & Order, Revenue Collection, Social and Community Services, Relief, Rescue and Rehabilitation Operations, Governance, Education, Primary Healthcare, Training & Capacity Building, Institutional Development and Public Administration and have demonstrated effectiveness in contributing substantially to improving the service delivery of Government/Social Sector institutions.
He spearheaded different teams at middle and senior level management positions and currently affiliated with policy making role. He has in-depth practical knowledge and working experience at senior positions in Government of Sindh (2022-1996), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) (06-2002), National Commission for Human Development (08-2006), Peoples Primary Healthcare Initiative (13-2008), FBR (2016-2013), Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and HRD (2020-2016), FBR (22-2020), Sindh Revenue Board (2022) and State Life Insurance Corporation (January -2023 till date).
He had an opportunity to serve in Pakistan Mission abroad as Community Welfare Counselor for more than four years which gave him an added exposure to Pakistan’s export potential in terms of Human resource and issues/ policies relating to Pakistani diaspora abroad.
He is currently working as Executive Director in State Life Corporation of Pakistan looking after Real Estate, and Policy Holder Service, Undrwriting and Legal Affairs divisions. He also on BODs Alpha Insurance Company as Director.
