After four years of being on the market, Escorts Investment Bank Ltd (ESBL) may have finally found a new home.
A public announcement of intention filed with the Pakistan Stock Exchange on April 17 discloses that Mr Kamran Malik, a Geneva‑based private‑banker, and Mr Sheikh Ali Baakza, chairman of Karachi’s Unicorn Group, have struck a share‑purchase agreement (SPA) to buy Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd’s entire 87.96 per cent stake — 119.28 million shares — and will follow it with a mandatory tender offer for another 6.02 per cent, or 8.16 million shares, held by the public.
AKD Securities, an investment bank, is acting as manager to the offer. The filing stresses that completion is contingent on regulatory approvals; no purchase price has yet been disclosed, a common feature at this stage. At Friday’s closing price of Rs 5.86 on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the whole bank is worth barely Rs 794 million.
Why Malik Riaz is moving on
The sale draws a line under property tycoon Malik Riaz’s eight‑year experiment in financial services. Bahria Town paid a symbolic Rs1 in July 2017 to rescue Escorts — which had defaulted on Rs5.7 billion of obligations — and injected Rs1.2 billion of fresh capital, aiming to build an in‑house mortgage engine for the group’s sprawling housing projects. The content in this publication is expensive to produce. But unlike other journalistic outfits, business publications have to cover the very organizations that directly give them advertisements. Hence, this large source of revenue, which is the lifeblood of other media houses, is severely compromised on account of Profit’s no-compromise policy when it comes to our reporting. No wonder, Profit has lost multiple ad deals, worth tens of millions of rupees, due to stories that held big businesses to account. Hence, for our work to continue unfettered, it must be supported by discerning readers who know the value of quality business journalism, not just for the economy but for the society as a whole.To read the full article, subscribe and support independent business journalism in Pakistan
