PPL approves 60pc cash dividend
KARACHI (PR): The 66th Annual General Meeting of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) was held on Friday at a local hotel. Members approved financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017 together with the auditor’s report thereon as well as final cash dividend of 60 percent on ordinary shares.
Board of Directors Chairman Abid Saeed presided over the proceedings. Presenting the year’s overview, MD and CEO Syed Wamiq Bokhari shared PPL’s outstanding performance, notably a profit-after tax of Rs36 billion, more than double compared to last year. Speaking on the ongoing dynamic exploration and development strategy, Bokhari pointed out that a record 43 wells were drilled in operated and partner-operated assets while deploying highest-ever 13 rigs operation with remarkable reduction in drilling time and cost. AugmentCare raises $1m to transform healthcare
LAHORE (PR): AugmentCare (AC), a complete healthcare app that connects patients with doctors, pharmacies, and laboratories, has raised a $1 million in seed capital - a remarkable feat that has not been achieved by many Pakistani startups. The Lahore-based company has successfully enticed local and international investors in East Asia and is planning to use its acquired capital to increase its team and expand its operations nationwide. Team AugmentCare aspires to change lives by providing access to high-quality healthcare. AugmentCare currently has approximately 30,000 patients registered on their platform but the app also offers a breath of fresh air for doctor who can gain access to a large pool of patients from all over the country.
There are 125 doctors on the platform from Lahore and Karachi with the numbers growing consistently, and international doctors expressing interest as well.
Habib Metro posts profit of Rs5.74b
KARACHI (PR): In a meeting of Habib Metropolitan Bank’s Board of Directors, held on October 25, 2017, the financial results of the bank for the period ended September 30, 2017 were approved.
The bank posted a profit-before-tax of Rs5.74 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2017. Total assets amounted to Rs631.4 billion and deposits increased to over Rs474 billion. Meanwhile, gross advances increased by over 20 percent year-on-year and were registered in excess of Rs184.8 billion. Return on Equity and Assets marked at 11.66 percent and 0.75 percent, respectively.
The profitable financial performance led Habib Metro Bank to record an annualised earning per share of Rs4.13. Net Equity stood at Rs37.3 billion with Capital Adequacy marking at a sound 16.76 percent. This demonstrated a financial robustness that was further validated by the Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) assigning premium credit ratings of AA+ and A1+ credit ratings to Habib Metro Bank for the 17th consecutive year.
SECMC, KU join hands for Thar’s agriculture
KARACHI (PR): The Sindh Engro Cola Mining Company (SECMC) and Halophyte Institute of Karachi University (HI-KU) are confident that the success of a pilot of Bio-saline agriculture is set to bring paradigm shift to the entire agriculture and livestock landscape of Tharparkar region and would make drought an irrelevant phenomenon.
Prof Dr Bilqees Gul of HI-KU said, “We started growing Panicum fodder or grass at the end of June this year and have been able to take its first harvest successfully. The fodder has been given out to different livestock owners for testing purpose and, reportedly, the animals are eating it as they would a normal fodder, said Dr Bilqees while speaking at a contract signing ceremony held between SECMC and IH-KU here on Friday.
UCP holds international symposium
LAHORE (PR): University of Central Punjab (UCP) Faculty of Life Sciences organised 5th one-day international symposium on “Recent Trends in Life Sciences” for the benefits of students’ community of this faculty.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, UK participated in the event. Prof Dr Mushtaq A Saleem, Dean Faculty of Life Sciences, UCP gave introduction of the faculty and briefed the August House about the theme of the symposium.
He threw light on the future prospects of research in various disciplines under Life Science ie Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Microbiology.
The participants of the day, Dr Umar Chaudhary from Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, England UK, gave a talk on “Next Generation Sequencing and its Applications”. He explained about the anthelmintic resistance in parasites and genetic basis. He also explained domestic and government controlled farms with regard to the difference of resistance in Pakistani and Indian sheep population.
DHA City Karachi: A smart city of Pakistan
KARACHI (PR): DHA City Karachi (DCK) is an upcoming sustainable, modern and smart city of Pakistan that will have a holistic mixed energy matrix based on independent energy production through conventional power plant, solar parks and wind farm to achieve energy self sufficiency in DCK.
DHA City is located in wind corridor and has tremendous potential for generation of renewable wind energy power. International companies are showing lot of interest in establishing wind energy turbines for harnessing and generation of kinetic wind power in DHA City. DCK is accordingly establishing a dedicated Wind Energy Park initially with a capacity of 50MW that will be extended to 100MW to enhance its capacity. A delegation of a leading Global Wind Energy Company visited DHA Head Office and attended a meeting chaired by Administrator DHA Brig Shahid Hassan Ali in which they presented their versatile investment and wind generation proposals in DCK using state-of-the-art modern technology for harnessing and generation of wind power.