Samba Bank staff seeks SBP's help
Samba Bank Limited (SBL) employees have asked the central bank to urge Saudi National Bank to provide a package to SBL staff that fears downsizing after the Saudi bank decided to exist Pakistan and disinvest its shares in SBL, The News learnt on Monday.
In a letter, SBL employees urged SBP to prevail upon the management of Saudi National Bank to provide a measured and stable package for all SBL employees. According to the employees, the majority of shares of the SBL were acquired in the year 2007-8 by Saudi Arabia Financial Group at a time when SBL was a loss making entity with a bleak future within the banking industry in Pakistan.
They were of the view that they had given their heart and soul to reignite the loss-making bank to achieve a turnaround by 2013. "SBL has now become a vibrant profit-making entity and declared dividends in 2020 and 2021 amounting Rs1.361 billion."
The employees said at the point of growing sense of economic stability of the bank, SNB had suddenly decided to exit from Pakistan by disinvestment of its shares in the SBL. The central bank has also approved the scheme of disinvestment, they lamented.
They said new sponsors would bring their own business strategy, informing that two out of three shortlisted bidders had plans to merge operations of SBL within and into their existing banking operations. It would result in termination of services of many employees in due course, they feared.
A three-day exhibition of gems, jewellery and fashion organised by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce will be held from May 20 to22.
RCCI president Nadeem Rauf said in a statement said that the purpose of the exhibition was to develop the SME sector and to encourage local traders and industrialists to take the gemstone business forward.
He said that gemstone was the million-dollar export market, and this exhibition would help identify critical areas that hinder the promotion of this sector.
"No doubt gems sector is a hidden treasure of Pakistan, which requires govt patronage to take exports to new heights", he added.
Nadeem further added that Pakistan was blessed with varieties of precious gemstone deposits and ranked fifth among world countries having its largest reservoirs in the northwest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and southeast of Balochistan.
Chelsea confirmed on Saturday that a consortium led by LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly has won the battle to buy the Premier League club in a £4.25 billion ($5.2 billion) deal.
Owner Roman Abramovich put Chelsea on the market in early March, just days before he was sanctioned by the British government following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
After a lengthy bidding process involving several groups, Boehly and his fellow investors were picked by Raine Group, the New York bank overseeing the sale.
Boehly's consortium includes a fellow co-owner of the Dodgers baseball franchise, Mark Walter, Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss and US investment firm Clearlake Capital.
"Chelsea Football Club can confirm that terms have been agreed for a new ownership group, led by Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter and Hansjoerg Wyss, to acquire the club," they said in a statement.
"Of the total investment being made, £2.5 billion will be applied to purchase the shares in the club and such proceeds will be deposited into a frozen UK bank account with the intention to donate 100 percent to charitable causes as confirmed by Roman Abramovich.
"UK government approval will be required for the proceeds to be transferred from the frozen UK bank account."