Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MARI), one of Pakistan’s largest E&P companies, has ramped up efforts to establish data centres in Pakistan. The official project launch ceremony was held on Wednesday in Karachi.

The development comes a day after the Board of Directors (BoD) of MARI approved an investment of Rs10 billion (approximately $36 million) to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary focused on technology-driven ventures.

“Regarding the formation of a subsidiary with a focus on data centres, cloud computing, AI, and other new technologies, with an equity investment of Rs10 billion.

“It is hereby informed that MARI through this initiative, plans to establish data centres at multiple locations across Pakistan to host data for public and private institutions,” read the notice on Wednesday.

The company informed that under the initiative MARI will initiate the project with scalable data centers and expand into artificial intelligence, cloud computing and related technology ventures.

“The project launch ceremony for the data centres took place early today in Karachi,” said the company.

Last month, MARI’s BoD approved the formation of a subsidiary focusing on cloud computing and AI, marking the company’s growing interest in tapping into the rapidly evolving tech sector.

The listed company’s latest venture comes at a time when the IT sector has emerged among the potential areas of growth in the otherwise lacklustre economy of Pakistan, with the country’s information technology and IT-enabled services (ITeS) export remittances reaching an all-time high of $3.223 billion in the fiscal year 2023-24, a 24% growth as compared to $2.596 billion in 2022-23.

In FY2024, Mari posted a profit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs77.28 billion, up nearly 38% year-on-year (YoY), compared to a PAT of Rs56.13 billion in the same period of the previous year.

The BoD announced a final cash dividend for the year at Rs134/- per share i.e. 1,340%. Moreover, the board also announced the issue of bonus shares for the year June 30, 2024, of 800%.