Air Link to separately list manufacturing subsidiary in IPO

There are, broadly speaking, two ways to tell the story of Pakistan’s consumer-electronics boom. One is as a retail story: more handsets, more screens, more gadgets, more people with enough disposable income to want them. The other is as an industrial story: a country that once imported finished devices is now trying, piece by piece, to assemble more of them at home. Air Link’s decision to float Select Technologies, its wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary, belongs squarely to the second narrative. It is not merely another listing notice. It is an attempt to put a market value on the factory floor itself.

The formal disclosure, sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on March 12, is brief but significant. Air Link Communication Ltd said that Select Technologies has decided to raise capital through an initial public offering and seek a listing on the PSX, subject to regulatory approvals and compliance with applicable laws. Arif Habib Limited has been appointed consultant to the issue and lead manager. That is, for now, the sum of what is officially known: no offer size, no valuation range, no indication yet of how much equity will be sold, and no public timetable. But even in outline, the structure is revealing. This is not Air Link raising money at the parent level for a mixed bag of operations. It is Air Link preparing to carve out a separately quoted manufacturing vehicle from a parent that today combines import, export, distribution, assembly, wholesale and retail under one roof.