A group of funds managed by the UK-based asset manager Ashmore Investment Management Limited is planning to sell a part of their stake in a Karachi-based beverage packaging manufacturer Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Cans Limited (PABC).
The funds are looking to sell 26 per cent of the stake through a first-time share sale in Karachi in June 2021, said PABC CEO Azam Sakrani; while the remaining 51 per cent holdings will be invested through a private placement to local investors, according to Syed Saquid Ali, director of investment banking at Arif Habib Ltd. and the sole adviser to the IPO.
The aluminium can manufacturing company is expecting to raise at least 3.3 billion Pakistani rupees ($22 million) through the IPO, the largest in Pakistan, since steelmaker Agha Steel Industries Limited raised 3.8 billion rupees offering in September.
The can manufacturer is releasing an IPO intending to expand its potential. PABC, the only aluminium beverage can manufacturer in Pakistan since 2017, is a supplier to almost all the manufacturers of Pepsico Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. products in Pakistan as well as in neighbouring country Afghanistan.
“There is huge growing demand for cans in Pakistan and the region,” Azam Sakrani said in an interview.
He added, “The phasing out of plastic bottles is also slowly and gradually expanding across the globe, that will benefit cans.”
Sakrani noted PABC has the current potential to manufacture 600 million cans in a year but now considering to expand to as many as one billion cans a year, given the rising local demand and export prospects, said Sakrani.
Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Cans Limited has also supplied printed cans to clients in Tajikistan and the US. It was shut for two months because of the pandemic but still managed to earn 6 per cent higher revenue to 5.1 billion Pakistani rupees last year. Its net income grew by more than four times to 611 million rupees.
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