KARACHI: “Matco Foods Limited, one of Pakistan’s largest Basmati rice exporters was formally listed today on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)”, said Mr Faizan Ghori (CFA), Director of Finance. The Gong Ceremony on the occasion ofthe formal listing of Matco Foods Limited was held today at the PSX, with Mr Jawed Ghori Chairman of Matco Foods Limited ringing the historical gong at the start of trading with Mr. Richard Morin, CEO of PSX and Mr. Hang You, Deputy Managing Director of PSX. This was the first IPO for the year 2018 in Pakistan and will add another company in the Food Sector on the PSX board. Matco completed the book building and public portion of the IPO in the end of January with a total issue of 29,143,000 million ordinary shares, at a strike price of PKR 26 per share. The gross proceeds to Matco Foods Limited from this offering were PKR 757 million before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses. Matco Foods Limited intends to use the net proceeds from this public offering for the expansion of its existing Rice Glucose and Protein Plant from 10,000 MT of glucose and 1,000 MT of protein production capacity per annum to 30,000 MT of glucose and 3,000 MT of protein respectively. Speaking on the occasion Jawed Ali Ghori, Chairman of Matco Foods said “Listing on the PSX is an important milestone in the history of our Company and a matter of great pride for all the stakeholders of Matco. We are grateful for the support of the investing community, our advisers, and especially the PSX and SECP which are playing a highly commendable role in developing our country’s equity capital markets.” Matco Foods’ brand “Falak” Basmati rice is available in all major cities of Pakistan and exported to over 40 countries around the world. “We will continue to invest and grow our brand domestically and abroad,” said Khalid Ghori, CEO of Matco Foods, “in addition to expansion of our Rice Glucose and Rice Protein division.” MCB Bank acted as book-running managers for the offering, and Arif Habib Limited acted as the consultant to the issue. Published in Daily Times, February 14th 2018.