Corporate Finance
Merger & Acquisition
Commodities Brokerage
Portfolio Management and Investment Advisory
Private Equity
Structured Finance
Equity
Forex/Money Market

Corporate Finance

InvestBank undertakes the placement of Corporate Equity and Debt Instruments, underwriting of new Debt and Equity Issues and arranging public flotation of these issues. InvestBank develops complete and innovative financial solutions in the industry to meet clients’ requirement in dynamic industries and markets.

InvestBank has been involved in most of the major financial sector corporate advisory transactions that have taken place in the local market during the past couple of years. Our recognized skill set, which makes us a first choice financial partner for entities seeking financial advice, includes:

• Our award winning Research (Awarded Best Equity Research House, and Best Equity Research Analyst by CFA Association of Pakistan)
• Our proven track record (Buy/Sell side adviser in three of the four largest acquisition transactions during the last two years)
• Our recognized integrity (Invest Capital has never run a proprietary trading book, and our investment advise has always been well researched, fair, and objective)

Merger & Acquisition

The lower tariff structures propagated under WTO regime have brought down tariff based trade barriers and encouraged more efficient utilization of capital, primarily through economies of scale. Additionally, financial sector regulators in Pakistan have raised the minimum capital requirements for all sorts of financial companies during the past two years. These two factors have led to a spurt of M&A activity in the country.

InvestBank has been a key player in this field and has provided financial advisory services to Buyers/Sellers in most of the significant M&A transactions that have taken place in Pakistan in the recent past, including:

• Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan Limited acquisition of Union Bank Limited
• Prime Commercial Bank Limited sale to ABN AMRO Bank Pakistan Limited
• Buyers Consortium of BankMusact SAOG, International Finance Corporation, Nomura European Investments Limited, and Sinthos Capital, acquisition of Saudi Pak Commercial Bank Limited

Commodities Brokerage

The globalization of financial markets has made asset diversification and managing portfolio risk more important than ever. Investors seeking a more sophisticated method of portfolio diversification have been turning to commodities. Futures contracts such as stock indices, debt instruments, currencies, energies, metals, and agricultural commodities offer an effective separate asset class to diversify an investor’s portfolio. In fact, studies have shown that a portfolio consisting solely of stocks and bonds may potentially have inferior performance and more risk than a portfolio that diversifies into commodity futures. The recent growth of automated futures trading systems offers investors a viable and low-maintenance approach to achieving such a diversification in commodities.

At InvestBank, we actively trade in commodities and have developed a strong expertise in this area so as to be able to provide an additional area of investment to our clients. We believe in creating a culture where the needs of our clients always come first. By adhering to exemplary standards and conducting our business with excellence and integrity, we enhance our own reputation and cultivate the growth of our business. Our
commitment to excellence is reflected in all aspects of our business.

Portfolio Management and Investment Advisory

Our ability to make speedy and correct decisions about investment mix and policy, matching investments to objectives, asset allocation for individuals and institutions, and balancing risk against performance is the key element behind our success.

Portfolio management is all about capitalizing on strengths and cashing in on opportunities, at the same time avoiding threats and underplaying weaknesses, while making a choice regarding debt vs. equity, domestic vs. international, growth vs. safety, and many other tradeoffs encountered in the attempt to maximize returns at a given appetite for risk.

InvestBank's in-depth market knowledge enables us to provide sound advice on Capital preservation, investment performance and maintenance of liquidity. This advice covers a range of asset classes, covering equity, fixed income and FX.

InvestBank has successfully designed and managed the Pilots Occupational Disability Fund (PODF) for the Pakistan Airline Pilots Associations (PALPA). Our experienced team of professionals developed and successfully managed this fund. The Bank has also provided debt management advisory services to the Government of Sindh for its Rs. 110 billion portfolio.

Private Equity

Pakistan has a thriving small-mid size industrial base in the smaller cities in Southern Punjab, especially, Sialkot, Faisalabad, etc. There are over 50,000 public and private limited companies registered with the SECP. The number of companies being registered each year has risen quite rapidly during the recent past. With a retail presence in Northern Pakistan, including the major cities of Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar, which is marked for further expansion in the current business plan, InvestBank is well placed to identify and tap these investment opportunities, and provide superior returns for its investors.

Structured Finance

InvestBank has been active in undertaking the placement of Corporate Equity and Debt instruments, underwriting of new Debt and Equity Issues and arranging secondary offerings. Specifically within the area division of Corporate Finance, we facilitate capital markets access (ECM & DCM), private placements, private equity and early stage venture financing. We also arrange loan syndications and structured finance for small and medium size enterprises.

Equity

Since its inception in December 1997, our equity brokerage operation has enjoyed unprecedented growth. In addition to the KSE, a strong presence in the Islamabad and Lahore stock exchanges has provided great strength and support to this area of our operations. Today as a consequence, InvestBank is on the panel of all the leading local institutional investors in the country. Concurrently, InvestBank caters to foreign institutional investors and has a growing number of individual clients. InvestBank equity operations have an approximate 3% share of the institutional business. InvestBank through its brokerage arm has established itself as a premier equity broker over the past decade. Having won recognition as both the best equity research house, and the best overall brokerage, InvestBank’s expertise in this area is well recognized.

Forex/Money Market

InvestBank has over the years through its brokerage arm established itself as a leading money market and foreign exchange brokerage. A pioneer in the area of trading money market funds on behalf of some of the leading financial institutions, it is also one of the first companies in Pakistan to serve as a market maker for Corporate Debt (Term Finance Certificates or TFCs). Our area of expertise also extends to trading sovereign debt. Today we execute on average PKR 10 billion out of an OTC market average daily volume of PKR 20 billion. InvestBank provides this service to all leading local and multinational banks, & major nonbanking financial institutions, garnering approximately 50% of the executions for overnight and longer tenor paper. By combining essential economic analysis with market information, InvestBank team has successfully maintained its lead over the other players in this field.