Pakistan is one of the long-term allies of the U.S. due to its strategic location in Asia. However the country is also a haven for all types of global terrorist outfits. So to be sure any type of investment in Pakistan is not for the faint-hearted. As a wild-west frontier market it is not an investment destination by any means for most small investors.

The population of Pakistan is about 170 million and the GDP is about $460.0 billion. Pakistan was partitioned from India by the British and was officially founded in 1947. Since its founding, Pakistan has been ruled by ruthless military dictators under the guise of democracy.

The main stock exchange of Pakistan is the Karachi Stock Exchange and the KSE-100 Index is the benchmark index which is composed of companies with the highest market capitalization. As of May this year 638 companies are listed on the KSE.

For US investors currently there are no country-specific ETFs for Pakistan. Some frontier-market ETFs have a small allocation of their portfolios to Pakistan.

Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited is the first sponsored ADR from Pakistan that started trading on the OTC market since Mar 07, 2011 under the ticker FTMFY.BNY Mellon acts as the Depositary Bank for this issue.Each Fatima ADR represents 50 ordinary shares. Fatima’s ordinary shares trade on all three stock exchanges (Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad) in Pakistan.

From a BNY Mellon press release:

Fatima Fertilizer Company was incorporated in December 2003 under Pakistan’s Companies Ordinance- 1984 with the objective of setting up a fully integrated fertilizer complex, capable of producing two intermediate products (ammonia and nitric acid) and four final products (nitro phosphate, nitrogen phosphorous potassium, calcium ammonium nitrate, and urea). Fatima’s complex also includes a 56 megawatt captive power plant in addition to off-sites and utilities.

“With over 22 million hectares under cultivation, agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy, and Fatima Fertilizer is a significant step in attaining fertilizer self-sufficiency. As Fatima Fertilizer grows and expands, a key milestone in our goals is the creation of this ADR program,” said Fawad A. Mukhtar, chief executive officer of Fatima. “We will now be able to garner more international exposure and investment to continue to fund our future plans.”

The ADR opened for trading at $7.0 and closed at $7.47 last week. The trading volume is very thin and the stock does not seem to trade daily.

For more information please checkout Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited’s Website.

Disclosure: No Positions