Citi Pharma to spin off real estate assets into a REIT

For decades, one of the great hidden assets on the balance sheets of Pakistani industrial companies has been land. Not machinery. Not inventory. Not even brands. Land.

Factories that were once built on the outskirts of cities have, over time, found themselves surrounded by housing societies, schools, hospitals, petrol pumps and restaurants. Roads improved. Populations grew. Lahore sprawled outward. And what had once been useful mainly as factory land became valuable as something else entirely: residential and commercial real estate.

Citi Pharma Ltd, the publicly listed pharmaceutical manufacturer, is now trying to turn that hidden value into a more visible financial asset.