Mian Muhammad Mansha – Famous Punjabi

Mian Muhammad Mansha was born in Lahore to a wealthy Chinioti family. His privileged upbringing allowed him to enjoy an early business education at an elite university. His childhood was spent in Faisalabad from where he also started his career as one of the most prominent industrialist of Pakistan. His textile mill in Faisalabad under the name of Nishat Mills still is one of the biggest textile units in Faisalabad. Mian Muhammad Mansha formally joined the family business after completing his studies in London. He has balance of worth 2.5 billion till 2013 . Apart from these large acquisitions, he was simultaneously expanding his Nishat Textiles segment, Nishat Textiles is Pakistan’s largest fabric mill. Mansha’s conglomerate greatly benefited from the privatization drive of the 1990s. Through this period, he made a number of acquisitions and buy-outs, including engineering at least one hostile takeover. When the dust settled, Mansha had acquired a controlling position in Adamjee Group, the country’s largest non-life insurer, and D.G. Khan Cement, previously owned by the Saigol family. While going through these large acquisitions, he was simultaneously expanding his Nishat Textiles segment, Nishat Textiles is Pakistan’s largest fabric mill. But all these achievements, perhaps, play third fiddle to Mansha’s master-stroke: the acquisition of one of Pakistan’s most profitable banks, MCB Bank Limited. Competing with several other bidders in a privatization process, there were several challenges to overcome, but ultimately he persevered. Under Mansha’s watch, MCB has demonstrated execution and growth and which has made it one of the premier financial service management teams in the Indian subcontinent. Mansha has proceeded to venture into new terrain, executing deals with state-owned WAPDA (Water and Power Distribution Authority) to sell excess power capacity generated at Nishat’s various power stations. This led to the founding of Nishat Power, which is now a growing business with Mansha’s son playing a senior role in the company’s executive board. MCB has also recently started a partnership with Maybank of Malaysia. Maybank now has a 25% share in MCB. The general perception is that MCB was privatised to Mansha and his associates because of Mansha’s social connections with Nawaz Sharif. However, Mansha feels that investing in the shares of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) has been one of his biggest business slip ups. The reason for privatising MCB remains a mystery. Nawaz Sharif came into power on 6 November 1990, he invited bids for the privatization of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) on 15 December 1990 and subsequently announced its privatization to successful bidder: Messrs Abdullah & Co on 9 January 1991. The stories from the past suggest that five bids were received for Muslim Commercial Bank with ‘Tawakkals’ and ‘Adamjee’ being the highest and second highest bidders respectively. Adamjee, who formed a joint venture with Yunus Brothers, perhaps the biggest Export Houses in Pakistan, had incorporated Muslim Commercial Bank in 1949. As previous owner, they had the first right of purchase, but third lowest bid by Messers Abdullah and others, a consortium of twelve leading industrialists, mostly from the Punjab. Mian Muhammad Mansha was asked to match the highest bid and was declared the winner. The consortium which called itself the National Group consisted of many industrial groups and their associated families. The notion however was completely wrong as privatization of MCB was initiated by State Bank of Pakistan; under the governorship of Imtiaz Alam Hanfi (an Urdu speaking) and Nawaz Sharif was never involved directly. Additionally, it was confirmed by SBP that banking licences or privatization of banks are not solely on the basis of highest bidders as it involves deposits from common people. MCB was awarded to the National Group as it had more diversified investors (thus better governance); while Tawakkul Group was bank defaulters and Admajee Group already had interests in financial sector. National Group was advised to raise their bid to meet the highest bidder; and thus on the basis on their better team and business plan it was awarded at the highest bid only. With $700 million in cash from MCB and another $300 million raised from international markets, Mansha has aspirations of acquiring an established bank in Indonesia and possibly even in the Middle East. MCB Bank already has international operations, and the Mansha group also owns an automobile leasing company in Kazakhstan. Further plans include major infrastructure projects in Pakistan, such as the construction of power plants and sea ports.In 2004, Mansha’s group and his preferred candidate were defeated by a margin of two votes in the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). Mansha subsequently resigned from APTMA. According to his first interview to a foreign magazine, Mian Mansha stated that, “my net worth is about $4–5 billion.” Indeed, there have been claims by many circles in Pakistan that the closely held group has a total capitalization of nearly US$10 Billion (Rs. 800 billion). However, due to a mix of private and public companies in the group, it is not possible to accurately arrive at a definitive capitalization of sea ports. D.G. Khan cement, which is part of Mansha’s Nishat group, was once the target of violence by local people living near the factory. The issue was eventually resolved by discussions and increased security around the plant.Mian Mohammad Mansha is currently on the board of 46 companies in Pakistan and is one of the most powerful and influential people in the country. He was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz civil award by President Musharraf on 23 March 2004. One of Mansha’s companies, Nishat Mills Limited, is the largest exporting entity in Pakistan. In March 2010, Mian Mohammad Mansha became the first Pakistani ever to make it to the Forbes rich list. Forbes valued Mansha as the World’s 937th richest person, with the net worth of $1.0 Billion. He is the first and the only Forbes Billionaire from Pakistan to date. Mansha owns the domestic charter plane service Pakistan Aviators & Aviation Ltd.He also owns the Mayfair, London-based St James’s Hotel and Club.