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The Karachi Stock Exchange has made amendments to the listing regulations regarding transfer pricing and corporate governance. According to the KSE on Monday, the management had already sought permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan for these amendments. According to the amendments, Chapter XII captioned “Transfer Pricing” and Regulation 38 (1) to (11) thereunder have been deleted while in Chapter XI captioned “Code of Corporate Governance” after sub-regulation (xiii) of Regulation 37, a new sub-regulation (xiii a) have been added. Under the new sub-regulation (xiii a), all companies registered under the Companies Ordinance, 1984 will place before the board of director all the transactions with the related parties for review and approval. Similarly, the detail of all related party transactions shall be placed before the audit committee of the company under the sub-regulation (xiii a). The board of directors of a company shall approve the pricing methods for r

Engro Chemicals Pakistan's second largest urea manufacturer, reported on Wednesday a 34.6 percent rise in earnings for the 2008 calendar year which an analyst said reflected higher sales. Net profit for the year to Dec. 31 was 4.24 billion rupees ($52.7 million), compared with 3.15 billion rupees the previous year. "The increase is primarily due to higher urea sales," said Ayub Ansari, an analyst at Invest Capital Investment Bank Ltd. The result was in line with market expectations. Five analysts surveyed by Reuters forecast net profit in a range of 3.8 billion to 4.8 billion rupees. Sales in 2008 increased to 23.32 billion rupees, compared with 23.18 billion rupees the previous year, the company said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange. Costs of production decreased to 17.12 billion rupees, compared with 18.26 billion rupees in 2007, it said. Engro's other income also rose to 2.75 billion rupees in 2008, compared with 1.83 billion rupees in 2007. Engro also