Jahangir Siddiqui or commonly known as JS Group is a diversified business group in Pakistan. Its foundation was laid about four decades ago. JS Group has now become one of the most progressive financial services groups of the country, with companies operating across various financial sectors e.g. asset management, commercial banking, Islamic banking, investment banking, financial advisory services, security brokerage, insurance, company research, trade finance, consumer credit rating, factoring, and micro finance.  Moreover, other vertical businesses are also included in the JS business empire. So the JS group also comprises of JS Industrial, JS Infocom, JS Property, JS Resources and JS Transportation. 

The JS group has an extensive network of branches as far as major cities in Pakistan are concerned. Offices for managing international operations of the JS group are located in London and Dubai.  As per December 2007, The JS group operates in diversified business fields with over 18,000 employees.

Financial Performance

As far as the financial performance of Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited Is concerned, the company declared profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 7,450 million for first half of fiscal year 2007-08, ended December 31, 2007. Extraordinary growth was reported in the operating revenue for this period. This year the company’s operating revenue stood at Rs 8,222 million as compared to Rs 221 million in the first half of fiscal year 2006-07. So the company’s operating revenue increase 36 folds during the period under review. This phenomenal growth could be attributed to the extraordinary gains from sale of securities. Eventually gain on revaluation of investments also contributed to the operating revenue immensely. Earnings per Share (EPS) for the same period was Rs 102.32.

Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited is included in the list of top 100 companies on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). Due to outstanding financial highlights in the first half of fiscal year 2007-08, The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) incorporated the company in the re-composed KSE-30 index, effective from February 15, 2008.
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The company recently offered a private placement of equity to foreign investors. Basically the company offered 22.02 million ordinary shares to foreign investors in June 2008. The subscription price of each share was Rs 475 at a premium of Rs 465 per share. So the company managed to collect Rs 10.46 billion of foreign investment funds by exchanging 22.02 million ordinary shares with international investors.

Despite current stock market debacle, I still consider Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited an attractive long-term investment opportunity in Pakistan.  It’s a much diversified group of companies across very profitable and promising business sectors. This allows investors to have a long term approach in investing in Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited. Although the gigantic increase in operating revenue and profit during the first half of current fiscal year could also be one of the reasons to include this stock in the portfolio for short-term gains. But I would still prefer long-term investment over it, as such an enormous increase in income is not sustainable and mainly contributed by extraordinary gains on the securities sale.