Aug 07 - 13, 2000

Intel moves up from 7th to 4th most valuable consumer brand

Coca-Cola is about to lose its status as the world's most valuable brand to Microsoft with old economy names making way for the new, the Financial Times reported.

An annual survey by U.S. consultancy firm Interbrand to be published on Tuesday would show Coca-Cola was still worth a massive $72.5 billion but was down 13 per cent from its value in 1999, the FT said. Microsoft's brand value rose 24 per cent to $70.2 billion over the same period, despite its U.S. anti-trust woes, meaning it was just about to overtake the Atlanta-based fizzy drink icon.

Interbrand analyses earnings forecasts for the world's best consumer brands and translates these into brand valuations. The rankings showed other established old economy brands suffering against the newer names. Poor performers included Kodak, down 20 per cent, Xerox,down 14, and Procter & Gamble, where the combined value of its brands such as Pampers and Tide was estimated as down two to $48.3 billion. Ericsson was the only major loser among tech stocks — down 47 per cent to $14.8 billion — while its communications hardware rival Nokia surged 86 per cent to $38.5 billion.

Newcomers among the 75 brands worth more than $1 billion were headed by Cisco Systems at $20.0 billion. The list included media stocks for the first time — with the MTV, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times brands all coming in above the $1 billion cutoff.

Interbrand's top 10 as reported by the Financial Times:

1.   Coca-Cola $72.5 billion

2.   Microsoft $70.2 billion

3.   IBM $53.2 billion

4.   Intel $39.0 billion

5.   Nokia $38.5 billion

6.   General Electric $38.1 billion

7.   Ford $36.4 billion

8.   Disney $33.6 billion

9.   McDonald's $27.9 billion

10. AT&T $25.5 billion

Intel introduces pentiumŪ III processor at 1.13 gigahertz

Intel Corporation introduced the IntelŪ PentiumŪ III processor at 1.13 GHz (gigahertz), the world's highest performance microprocessor for PCs.

"Intel's Pentium III processor reaches a new level of performance with 1.13 GHz, enabling Intel's customers to ship the world's fastest PC platforms," said Bill Siu, vice president, Intel Architecture Group, and general manager, Desktop Platforms Group. "With the Pentium III processor at 1.13 GHz, PC enthusiasts will be able to get the most out of the Web and the high performance applications they use today."

Using BAPCo's SYSmark* 2000 benchmark running under Windows* 2000, the Pentium III processor 1.13 GHz delivers a system-level performance score of 208 compared to a score of 197 on the Pentium III processor at 1 GHz.

MCB Annual General Meeting

Muslim Commercial Bank earned a profit after tax of Rs.569 million during the year ending December 31, 1999 which was 42.5% higher than the preceding year, Mian Muhammad Mansha, Chairman of the Bank made this announcement at the Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders of the bank.

The meeting also approved giving of a cash dividend of 15% and a bonus of 10% to its shareholders for the year 1999 as compared to a cash dividend of 17.5% for the year 1998. The Shareholders were also informed that after making the necessary appropriations for cash dividend and bonus shares, another Rs.113.7 million had been added to the Statutory Reserves to raise it to a healthy Rs.1.436 billion.

The Chairman informed the members of the bank that last year the country's economy demonstrated a mixed trend mainly due to impact of economic sanctions following the nuclear explosion in 1998. Still, Mian Mansha felt, that the bank could look back at its performance during 1999 with a lot of satisfaction as it achieved better operational results in a number of areas.

Not only profit after tax posted a substantial increase over the preceding year, the Bank registered a rise in Deposits which stood at over Rs.130 billion on December 31, 1999, despite the depressed economic activities.

The sale of Rupee Traveler Cheques was around Rs.100 billion, showing a growth of 45% in twelve months. The MCB RTC sale in fact was more than double of the combined sale of RTCs of all other banks in Pakistan in 1999. Three International Banks i.e. Faysal, ABN Amro and Gulf Commercial, started the use of MCB RTC in their operations.

On the loan recovery front, MCB had significantly high recoveries compared to preceding year. During 1999 bank recovered Rs.1.30 billion from classified portfolio alone. The bank recovered Rs.727.75 million representing 56% of the total cash recovery. Over Rs.54 million was recovered from written off accounts and over Rs.40 million from property sales.

On December 31, 1999, the bank had over 4.5 million Account holders in its 1215 branches located all over the country and 12,557 employees, down from 14,729 in 1996 when the down-sizing of Bank commenced to improve its profitability.

MCB's ATM Card Holders touched nearly 100,000 mark (the highest for any bank in Pakistan) who could draw cash from 80 machines located in 11 major cities of Pakistan. To increase the utility of ATM services, MCB linked its ATM network to Master Card, Cirrus and Maestro thus becoming part of the largest ATM network in the world. A strategic decision was taken to establish an ATM switch and open its ATM network to other banks. The ATM switch has been named MNET and four International Banks have already signed MOU's for linkage.

Mian Mansha disclosed that a decision has also been made to initiate state-of-the-art automation of branches to cater for future needs, improve productivity, service quality and profitability. Recognizing the need to cater to changing competencies, skill sets and succession needs, the bank had continued to invest in and focus on the employees development and training, as well as annual recruitment of Management trainees. He thanked Ministry of Finance and State Bank of Pakistan for providing valuable support and guidance to the Bank during the year.

At the Annual General Meeting nine Directors were elected for the next three years: Mian Mohammad Mansha, Mr.Tariq Rafi, Mr.S.M.Muneer, Sh.Mukhtar Ahmad, Mr.Mohammad Arshad, Mr.Shahzad Saleem, Mr. Raza Mansha, Mr.Sarmad Amin, Mr.Umer Mansha.

Independence Day Brunch at the Karachi Sheraton

The 53rd Independence Day of Pakistan will be celebrated at the Karachi Sheraton Hotel & Towers at a delightful Independence Day Brunch. This fun-packed family event will be held on Sunday, August 13, 2000 at Sheraton's all-day dining restaurant, Al-Bustan. The Brunch will serve the popular breakfast items, continental and Pakistani dishes, kids corner, crunchy salads, cold cuts and delectable desserts from the Sheraton kitchen.

NBP Appoints new Chief Finance Officer

Masood Karim Sheikh, Senior Executive Vice-President of the National Bank of Pakistan, has recently been appointed the Chief Finance Officer of the Bank. He previously headed the Treasury Management Division of NBP.

Mr. Sheikh's previous responsibilities will now be handled by Muhammad Nusrat Vohra, Executive Vice-President, the recently appointed Head of Treasury Management Division.

Incorporated on November 8, 1949, the National Bank of Pakistan performs sub-treasury functions on behalf of the State Bank of Pakistan.