NBP congratulates the CFA Association of Pakistan for its 10th year of Excellence Awards in the country. The CFA program charters finance professionals world-wide and has been a source for promoting an ever-growing talent pool of high quality finance professionals for the global financial markets. The Program's contribution to the quality of HR resources in Pakistan's financial market itself has lead to a continuous availability of professionals who are fully updated on financial market developments on a global scale.
Furthermore, the CFA Association of Pakistan's annual excellence awards are the premierdomestic awards tailored towards recognising the institutions that have excelled in various areas of the financial markets. These excellence awards are presented based on a transparent process led by a panel of independent judges and the ceremony has become an annual event which the finance industry recognises the performers for that year. This year was the 10th year of the ceremony and it is a milestone for the finance industry as well as for the CFA Association of Pakistan.
CFA Association of Pakistan has declared National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) the winner for the "Transaction of the Year-2012" for Sell-Side Advisory for the sale of shares of Agritech Limited by Azgard Nine Limited (ANL). The CFA Association of Pakistan's panel of independentjudges, based their decision on the innovativeness of structure, suitability to customer's requirements, transaction size, width of distribution and the transaction's impact on Pakistan's financial markets and determined NBP as a winner.As a result of the transaction, ANL Group liabilities to the banking system reduced from over PKR 45 billion to approximately Rs 13 billion.
Investment banking at NBP has also been a significant component of the bank's portfolio of products and services offered to its client base. This area specialises in loan syndications, infrastructure and project finance as well as structuring capital markets transaction in the debt and equity arena - issuance and/ or listing of shares and Term Finance Certificates, as well as capital-related advisory services for corporate customers.NBP is the largest public sector commercial bank in Pakistan with total assets well in excess of PKR 1.30 trillion (as on December 31st 2012). NBP's strength has been recognised internationally as the Banker Magazine (UK) has awarded 'Bank of the Year' in 2011, 2010 and NBP continues to be listed among the top 1,000 banks of the world for 2012 and 2013. Global Finance Magazine has awarded NBP as the "Best Emerging Markets Bank (2011)" and Asian Banking and Finance Magazine has named NBP "the Domestic Retail Bank of the Year 2013". NBP also won awards from CFA Association Pakistan in 2011 for Corporate Finance House (Fixed Income) of the year and Transaction of the Year for its advisory for the private placement and IPO of Engro Foods Limited on the Karachi Stock Exchange.
NBP extends its felicitations to the CFA Association of Pakistan for the completion of its first ten years and its best wishes for the future.