Career
He started his career as one of the most prominent industrialists of Pakistan. Nishat Textiles Mills was started in 1951 by his father and uncles.[5] His father died one year after he returned from London after finishing his studies there in 1968. Mian Muhammad Mansha joined the family business in 1969 and eventually he split with his uncles and took over the family business.[1][5] He was worth US$2.5 billion in 2013.[6] Apart from making large acquisitions, he was simultaneously expanding his Nishat Textiles segment. Nishat Textiles Mills is Pakistan's largest fabric manufacturing mills.[7]
After 1979, Mansha set up Pakistan's largest textile complex of seven factories in Nishatabad in the city of Faisalabad. In later years, another textile complex followed in Chunian near Lahore.[2]
Mansha's conglomerate benefited greatly from the privatisation drive by the governments of the 1990s. During 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 Insurance, the country's largest non-life insurer. Nishat Mills also acquired two thermal power plants near its D. G. Khan Cement Factory located in Dera Ghazi Khan District, Punjab, previously owned by the Saigol family. Business analysts in Pakistan reportedly said that the acquisition of two thermal power plants would ensure uninterrupted power supply to Dera Ismail Khan Cement Factory for the Nishat Group.[7] While going through these large acquisitions, he was simultaneously expanding his Nishat Textiles segment, Nishat Textile Mills is Pakistan's largest fabric manufacturing company.[7]
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 or better known as Muslim Commercial Bank. Competing with several other bidders in a privatisation process, there were several challenges to overcome, but ultimately he persevered.[2] Under Mansha's watch, MCB Bank has demonstrated execution and growth and which has made it one of the premier financial service management teams in the Indian subcontinent. Today, MCB Bank is one of the top 4 banks in the country and leads in terms of market capitalisation with a massive employee base of roughly 18,000.
Mansha has proceeded to venture into new terrain, executing deals with state-owned WAPDA (Water and Power Development Authority) to sell its excess electric 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.[8]
MCB Bank, in 2008, started a partnership with Maybank of Malaysia. Maybank now has a 20% share in MCB Bank.[9] In 2009, Mian Muhammad Mansha, chairman of MCB Bank, said that his efforts were successful in continuing to bring foreign investment to Pakistan and that his bank had already brought 970 million U.S. dollars' investment into the country from Malaysia following a deal with May Bank, Malaysia.[10] He was selected for a special Lunch with the UK Financial Times newspaper.[1] According to Forbes listings in 2010, he was the 937th richest person in the world and the richest person in Pakistan.[5]
With $700 million in cash from MCB Bank 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 Nishat Group also owns an automobile leasing company in Kazakhstan. Further plans include major infrastructure projects in Pakistan, such as the construction of electric power plants based on coal-powered generation of electricity and sea ports.[10]