Crescent

"The people who care for the people". It was in early 1910 that Shams Din of Chiniot and his four sons, Fazal Karim, Mohammad Amin, Mohammad Bashir and Mohammad Shafi set up a small tannery at Amritsar in India. By the time Pakistan was born, they had offices at Madrass, Jalandhar, Calcatta and Delhi.

After the birth of Pakistan, three of the four brothers returned to native land and in 1951, incorporated a trading company namely Mohammad Amin, Mohammad Bashir Ltd for export of Cotton and imports. Bashir settled in Karachi, Amin managed the operations from Lahore and Shafi worked in a ginning factory in Sargodha. According to Emma Duncan, in " Breaking the Curfew", Crescent family was alloted an industrial unit sprawling over 125 acres in Faisalabad, in lieu of the property left over in India, which was to become the spring board of their growth and diversification.

By mid 1960s Fazal Karim also returned to Pakistan and the four brothers fondly known in the business community, as the " The gang of four" soon became Pakistan's biggest textile exporters. They were also joined in the business by their two cousins. Crescent, today has the largest number of listed companies (22) in its fold with assets exceeding Rs 10 billion. It is the soundest, if not the largest industrial conglomerate in Pakistan and last of the 22 families which has remained united through thick and thin, the best and the worst times for big business in Pakistan during last 50 years. Presided over by eldest member of the family, Mazhar Karim, the group has twenty working members and can be truely called a joint venture of uncles, cousins and nephews.

In a communication to the author in 1993, the group maintained that " there has been no split whatseoever and Crescent group exists in the same shape as it has always been since its inception" but there are recent indications that for administrative convenience rather than for some other reason the group has been subdivided.

Crescent has the slogan of " the people who care peopel" and belongs to the enterprising Chinioti community who have the general reputation of never transferring their money abroad. Crescent particularly has the reputation of being truly rooted and entrenched in the Pakistani Soil and is considered to be a conscientious tax payers.

An article in Weekly Friday Times in the first week of April 1993 described Crescent as " one of the oldest, largest and most distinguished business concerns in Pakistan, an exemplary tax payers and investors of every penny earned back into their business of the home country".

Crescent lost its shipping line with two vessels, Shams and Karim in Bhutto's nationalization and although Crescent Investment Bank was first private sector bank to start operations in 1990 and had set up a seperate division to take part in privatization, it did not bid for any unit during Nawaz Sharif's privatization. However it registered one of highest growth rate during Nawaz era and launched a large no of new companies particularly Modarba and leasing companies during 1990-93.

Crescent Listed Companies

S no  Name  Assests  Turnover
1 Crescent Textile 3,159 894
2 Crescent Spinning 582 209
3 Shams Textile 556 592
4 Elite Textile 161 297
5 Crescot Mills 122 324
6 Jubilee Spinning 680 322
7 Surraj Cotton 458 533
8 Crescent Steel 676 760
9 Crescent Jute 1,007 672
10 Shakarganj Sugar 1,630 1,090
11 Crescent Board 605 457
12 Crescent Sugar 950 958
  Total 10,568 7,108

Financial Companies
S.No Companies Assets
13 Crescent Bank 6,558
14 Premier Insurance 333
15 First Crescent Modarba 473
16 First Elite Capital Modarba 155
17 First Equity Modarba 355
18 Crescent Leasing Corporation 250
19 Paksitan Industrial Leasing Corporation 4,202
20 Trust Investment Bank -
  Total Financial Assets 12,353

Unlisted Companies
Sargodha Cotton Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd
Crescent Software
Crescent Knitwear
Shams Fabrics
Crescent Trading Corporation
Crescent Group Services (Pvt) Ltd
Crescent Modarba Management Services
Tex Mac Services
Crescent Management Services
Crescent Power Plant Limited
World Class Textile Mills
Jhang Electric Supply Corporation
Crescent Greenwood
Shams Food Products Ltd
Ujala Cotton Mills
Crescent Factories Ltd
Karachi Bulk Storage and Terminal Ltd
Mohammad Amin and Mohammad Bashir Ltd
Shakarganj Mills Ltd
Shams Woolen Mills
Crescent Power Tch Ltd
Pir Mohammad Associates
Crescent Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd
Crescent Industrial Chemicals
International Housing Finanace Ltd