The confidence in the Central Depository System (CDS) can be gauged from the fact that the number of Investor Accounts has crossed 14,300 and the investors are taking benefit of government's current privatisation drive through CDC's highly efficient and cost-effective mechanism.
The role of CDC in the IPOs of Oil & Gas Development Company Limited, Abamco Composite Fund, Bank Alfalah and secondary offerings of Sui Southern Gas Company and Pakistan International Airlines has proved to be highly successful. In case of the OGDCL, 60.84 percent shares were directly credited into the system while electronic book entries in SSGC, Abamco Composite Fund, Bank Alfalah and PIA were 36.55 percent, 74.83 percent, 42.9 1 percent and 62.59 percent of the total issue respectively.
Realising the need of educating the small shareholders about the benefits of opting electronic securities, CDC took an active pail in the IPO of Pakistan Petroleum Limited and participated in the Investment Road Shows in Islamabad. Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar. The company is hopeful that a major part of the offered 102.8 million shares will he credited into the CDS.
Furthermore, CDC has transferred the role of uploading subscriber & information on the CDS to the issuers and registrars in a bid to add efficiency, swiftness and confidentiality to the credit process. CDC officials said that instead of providing the said information to them, issuers and registrars are now able to upload the information of successful allottees into the CDS themselves.
All these new and existing facilitating measures have re-defined CDCs role in the governments current privatisation drive through capital market. The unmatchable benefits of instant shares credit, greater liquidity, stamp duty and postage cost savings, reduced workload and costs for issuers, quick service and convenient accommodation of huge volume issues have made the CDC the ultimate choice of not only the investors, but also of the issuers.