Credit Suisse starts operations in Pakistan

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Credit Suisse launched its operations in Pakistan on Thursday through a wholly owned subsidiary, Credit Suisse Pakistan (Private) Limited based in Karachi.

It will initially offer equity research and research sales to institutional clients, and aims to expand its operations to full broking-dealing services.

Kai Nargolwala, CEO of Credit Suisse in Asia Pacific, said at a press conference that they would develop their research and sales platform, with a view to offer their institutional clients full scale broker-dealer services in the first half of 2009.

Credit Suisse has already put in place a research team for Pakistan, with active coverage of the country’s equity market. It started research coverage of Pakistan in 2006 and covers 50 Pakistan stocks.

A paper released to the media on the occasion says that Credit Suisse is investing in Pakistan because it believes it has an exciting economic story that offers attractive opportunities to investors.

It adds that low valuations and high dividend yields make the KSE one of the most compelling long-term investment prospects in the region.

Pakistan’s low proportion of foreign trade in GDP, young population and low levels of external debt should help the economy counteract global turbulence, says the paper. staff report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg5_5