The Board of Directors of Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MARI), one of Pakistan’s largest E&P companies, has approved an investment of Rs10 billion (approximately $36 million) to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary focused on technology-driven ventures. The E&P shared the development in its notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday. “The Board in its meeting (emergent) held on September 23, 2024 has approved an investment of Rs10 billion by MARI in the proposed wholly-owned subsidiary company with a focus on data centre, cloud computing, AI and other new technologies including petroleum and mining sectors by way of equity,” read the notice. The development comes a month after MARI’s BoD approved the formation of a subsidiary focusing on cloud computing and AI, marking the company’s growing interest in tapping into the rapidly evolving tech sector. The listed company’s latest venture comes at a time when the IT sector has emerged among the potential areas of growth in the otherwise lacklustre economy of Pakistan, with the country’s information technology and IT-enabled services (ITeS) export remittances reaching an all-time high of $3.223 billion in the fiscal year 2023-24, a 24% growth as compared to $2.596 billion in 2022-23. In FY2024, Mari posted a profit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs77.28 billion, up nearly 38% year-on-year (YoY), compared to a PAT of Rs56.13 billion in the same period of the previous year. The BoD announced a final cash dividend for the year at Rs134/- per share i.e. 1,340%. Moreover, the board also announced the issue of bonus shares for the year June 30, 2024, of 800% i.e. eight shares for every one share held, from the Capital Redemption Reserve Fund and the balance from Revenue Reserves.