CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW
During the year under review, the economy of the country remained depressed. The country faced multiple challenges due to external and internal factors. This resulted in a muted performance of Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) industries, as industrial production is very much dependent on global prospects, import of capital goods, and affordable financing. The main reasons are largely due to continued political instability, leading to a shortfall of foreign reserves, floods, rupee devaluation, revision in energy prices and restrictions on imports. Inflation was also recorded at an all-time high, and all this created further pressure on the domestic price of sugar.
The total sugarcane crushed in Pakistan was recorded at 65.57 million tons (FY 2022: 79.71 million tons), resulting in a contraction by 17.74 percent over the previous FY 2022. This led to a decrease in the production of sugar in the country by 14.45 percent to 6.74 million tons (FY 2022: 7.88 million tons). Due to unfavorable weather conditions in many regions, sugar production in Sindh decreased to 1.745 million tons (FY 2022: 2.29 million tons). The performance of the food industry remained subdued, shrinking 8.71 percent as against the growth of 11.21 percent last year. Floods additionally impacted sugar-related production activities, especially sugar, bakery products as well as sugar and non-sugar confectionery, witnessing a drop of 14.3 percent. The decline in the food industry and LSM lead to an overall market contraction of 5.42 percent in paper manufacturing against a growth of 17 percent last year.
Despite these challenging times, I am pleased to report that the Board of Directors has duly performed its duties and responsibilities during the year. The Board of Directors of the Company, including the Independent Directors, consists of highly qualified/professional and experienced persons, who bring vast experience from different businesses and backgrounds. All Board members are well aware of their responsibilities and fulfill these diligently.
The Board recognizes the importance of well-defined corporate governance and other processes for the success of the Company. Accordingly, the Company has an independent Internal Audit Department that follows a risk-based audit methodology. Internal Audit reports are presented to the Board Audit Committee on a quarterly basis, and areas of improvement are highlighted and methodically followed up on. All Directors, including the Independent Directors, participated in and contributed to the discussions and decision-making process. In particular, the Board actively participated in the strategic planning process and financial and other policy development, monitoring and approval. The significant issues throughout the year were presented before the Board of Directors or the Committees, and the Board continues to strengthen and formalize the corporate decision-making process.
The Board also carried out an annual self-evaluation in line with the requirements of the Code of Corporate Governance. Management kept the Board appraised of the Company’s affairs.
The Board of Directors and Management remain committed to not only continuing to maximize shareholder value through further efficiency enhancements and diversification initiatives, but also to contributing towards the development of the communities the Company operates in. I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to our customers, suppliers, bankers and shareholders for their continued support of, and trust in, the Company, as well as to all our employees as well as my colleagues on the Board for their continued support, commitment and hard work.
Arif Faruque
Chairman
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mr. Arif Faruque
Chairman
Mr. Arif Faruque is a Swiss – qualified Attorney-at-Law, also holds Masters degrees in both Law and Business Administration from the United States of America and has 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., Cherat Cement Company Ltd. and UniEnergy 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.
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 master in Business Administration (Marketing and Operations Management) from Hamdard University, Karachi.
He is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd. He is a Chief Financial Officer of Zensoft (Pvt.) Ltd. Mr. Khalid is also serving on the Board of Directors of Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd., Greaves Airconditioning (Pvt.) Ltd., Greaves CNG (Pvt.) Ltd., Greaves Engineering Services (Pvt.) Ltd. and as an Executive Director Finance of Unicoi Ltd.
He has contributed immensely towards development of financial models and implementation of new projects. He has been actively involved with the regulators, practitioners 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. 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 Member committee agriculture development and reforms at Ministry of Industries and Production and Kisan Board on behalf of PSMA- Sindh Zone, He has also been nominated 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 Mashreq Bank 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 27 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 (1996-2022), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) (2002-06), National Commission for Human Development (2006-08), Peoples Primary Healthcare Initiative (2008-13), FBR (2013-2016), Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and HRD (2016-2020), FBR (2020-22), Sindh Revenue Board (2022).
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 divisions. He is also on Board of Directors Alpha Insurance Company as Director.
