Turkish firm acquires Dawlance Pakistan for $243m
KARACHI (APP): A leading Turkish company, Arcelik, has acquired Dawlance Pakistan for $243 million. This was announced by Arcelik Chief Executive Officer Hakan Bulgurlu here on Tuesday. With this deal, the Arcelik and Dawlance would grow together in Pakistan's market, Hakan said. Arcelik- a key player in global home appliances industry, had financial closing of the acquisition on November 2, 2016, he added. He said Arcelik has made a significant investment in Pakistan in line with its global growth strategy. He said that Pakistan is a promising market with a population of approximately 200 million people and an increasingly growing economy. “The acquisition of Dawlance is a significant milestone that consolidates our growth strategies in the region. We are pleased to expand our global outreach by adding Pakistan's leading home appliances brand into our group. We welcome all our Dawlance colleagues to Arcelik family,” he added.
On the occasion, Dawlance Marketing head Hassan Jamil said, “A new and exciting period lies ahead for all of us. I am confident that this combination will bring together great synergies and opportunities for Dawlance, to grow together as part of a larger and global organisation.”

Textile Ministry initiates SMS service for cotton growers
ISLAMABAD (APP): Ministry of Textile Industry has started short messaging service (SMS) for cotton growers in order to update them about crop and create awareness about different diseases and pest attacks on major cash crop of the country. `Tele Cotton Service’ could be subscribed from dialing the number and providing name, national identity card number and name of area, said Cotton Commissioner in Ministry of Textile Industry, Dr Khalid Abdullah. Talking to APP here on Tuesday, he said that farmers across the country could activate the service just by dialing the number 0334-112 123 from their cell phones as there was no charges of the subscription of the service. It would update the farmers and create awareness about the cotton crop including daily prices of the commodity in local as well as in international markets, insect attacks on crop and pest management. The initiative, he said, would help the cotton growers to update their information about the crop by using the best management practices.
Besides, he said that the Ministry of Textile Industry is also starting off-season training programme for farmers in order to eliminate the white fly and pink ball warm from the cotton plants and woods stocked to use as domestic fuel for cooking and other purposes.
He said that in first stage about 500 master trainers from food and agriculture departments and ginners association would be trained which would further train growers across the country to control any outbreak of insects on crop.
Dr Abdullah said that several steps have been taken to promote the cotton sector and enhance per acre crop production in the country. He said that about 10,000 farmers had trained in first stage on pest management, adding that due to the proper training pest attack was recorded at lower level during the last crop season.

US retail sales post solid gain in October

WASHINGTON (AFP): US retail sales recorded solid growth in October, adding to September gains and showing an upswing in advance of last week's presidential elections, according to Commerce Department figures released Tuesday. The advance estimate for the month put sales at $465.9 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent over September and 4.3 percent over the same month last year, the report showed. The analyst consensus forecast was for a more modest increase of 0.6 percent. Sales were down slightly for furniture and home furnishings, department stores and restaurants but up sharply at gas stations. Retailers for building materials also saw sales rise. Spending in the first 10 months of the year was up 2.9 percent over the same period in 2015. Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the numbers were generally good news. "Overall, our measure of core sales, which excludes gasoline, autos, food and building materials, rose 0.5 percent, the best performance since May," he wrote in a client note.
"In short, a solid report, signalling that pre-election spending was quite robust, but we just don't know how consumers will react to the election result."
The Commerce Department figures came as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that economic activity had stabilized in New York State in November.
The general business conditions index for the month rose eight points, moving into positive territory at 1.5, while new orders rose to 8.7 and shipments surged to 9.1.

OGDCL to drill 25 new wells during 2016-17

ISLAMABAD (APP): The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), the country’s leading exploration and production company, would drill 25 new wells during the current financial year, official sources said on Tuesday. “Under the target set for the year 2016-17, the company has to dig 25 wells in all provinces and it will hopefully be achieved,” they told APP. Answering a question, they informed that the total number of oil and gas discoveries made by exploration and production (E&P) companies, during tenure of the current government, had reached the 90 with increase in success rate of drilling from 31 percent to 55 percent. “It means that there is a find after every two drills,” they said and compared that the previous government had succeeded to make just 35 discoveries in the same period. During last three years, the sources said oil and gas exploration companies drilled around 319 wells, out of which 158 were developmental wells. “The figure is 40 percent higher than the tenure of previous government,” they added.
They said the current government had so far added 944mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) gas in the system out of which 466mmcfd came from new discoveries and 478mmcfd gas from existing wells. Besides, the sources said, there was an increase of 32,000 barrel per day in crude oil production.