Karachi: In a significant corporate development, the Honourable High Court of Sindh at Karachi has sanctioned the transfer of shares from Arif Habib Limited (AHL) to Arif Habib Corporation Limited (AHCL), following a Scheme of Arrangement involving the two entities. The transaction, concluded on October 24, 2024, involves the transfer of ordinary and preference shares of Aisha Steel Mills Limited (ASML) from AHL to AHCL, the holding company.

The court's order, dated October 21, 2024, and passed in J.C.M. No. 31 of 2023, facilitated the Scheme, which includes the demerger of certain non-core businesses and their subsequent merger into AHCL. According to information available from the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as part of this arrangement, 10,850,004 ordinary shares and 217,500 preference shares of ASML previously held by AHL were transferred to AHCL through the Central Depository Company (CDC) on October 24, 2024.

Following this transfer, AHCL now holds a total of 113,405,769 ordinary shares and 35,075,499 preference shares of ASML. This represents 15.24% of the total shareholding in the company's capital. Despite the transfer, the overall shareholding of the Arif Habib Group in ASML remains unchanged. The group, along with other entities, continues to maintain control of more than fifty percent of the shareholding in ASML.

The corporate maneuver, sanctioned under Sections 279 to 283 and 285 of the Companies Act, 2017, was aimed at streamlining the business operations of the Arif Habib Group by consolidating its core and non-core assets.