Insurance player to get listed after reverse merger

The life insurance subsidiary of TPL Corporation Ltd is going to have a reverse merger with Dar-es-Salaam Textile Mills Ltd to achieve the listing status. A reverse merger allows a private entity — TPL Life Insurance Ltd in this case — to become a publicly traded firm simply by acquiring controlling shares in a listed entity. In other words, the private firm goes public without going through the tedious and costly process of an initial public offering (IPO). Dar-es-Salam Textile Mills Ltd is a dormant spinning business that currently rests on the defaulter’s counter of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). It made a net loss of Rs1.8 million in the July-September quarter of 2023-24. The total value of the dormant textile firm is Rs74m based on the existing price of Rs9.25 per share. Many reverse mergers have taken place in the recent past as private companies find it more feasible to acquire dormant listed companies than going public in the conventional way, which involves hefty listing and regulatory fees.