Dawood Hercules plans Rs5.3b investment
Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd is going to make long-term investments of more than Rs5.3 billion in its associated companies.
Shareholders passed a resolution in their extraordinary general meeting on Monday to allow the investments in the publicly traded shares of four companies at prices quoted on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
The holding company chaired by prominent businessman Hussain Dawood serves as a vehicle for equity investments in a number of subsidiaries and associated companies, including Engro Corporation Ltd.
The general public, including local and foreign investors, controlled more than 58 per cent shareholding in Dawood Hercules Corporation at the end of 2021.
The holding company will invest Rs2 billion in Engro Fertilisers Ltd,
Rs2bn in Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd, Rs350 million in Engro Powergen Qadirpur Ltd and Rs1bn in Frieslandcampina Engro Pakistan Ltd. The resolution will remain valid for five years.
Separately, the shareholders also authorised the company to dispose of its entre shareholding in its wholly owned subsidiary Empiric AI Ltd to technology firm Avanceon Ltd against a 5.68pc shareholding in Octopus Digital Ltd, a subsidiary of Avanceon Ltd involved in data storage, online monitoring and review of employee efficiency, cost and production efficiency and maintenance of plant and machinery.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday acquitted all five men sentenced in the murder case of renowned rights activist Perween Rahman - who was shot dead in the metropolis in 2013 - citing a lack of evidence and ordered their release.
The development comes around nine months after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi sentenced four of the accused, namely Abdul Raheem Swati, Ahmed Khan, Amjad Hussain Khan and Ayaz Swati, to life imprisonment and sent the fifth accused, Imran Swati, to jail for seven years.
The trial court's verdict, which was issued after eight long years of proceedings, was subsequently challenged in the high court.
In its judgement issued today, a two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi, observed that none of the accused had been charged with "actually murdering" Rahman.
Instead, the court said, the accused were charged with "planning, instigating and in effect abetting the murder".
The judges also agreed with the appellants' lawyer on the contention that Rahman's interview, which she gave in 2011 and aired after her murder, was inadmissible evidence.