It started with corn. Now, seven decades later, it is making history.
In what analysts are calling one of the most significant business deals Pakistan has seen in nearly twenty years, American food giant Ingredion Incorporated has agreed to sell up to 75 percent of its stake in Rafhan Maize Products, the country’s dominant starch and food ingredients maker, to the powerful Nishat Group, one of Pakistan’s most ambitious private conglomerates, according to Arab News.
The announcement landed quietly on a Sunday, but its weight was anything but light.
Rafhan Maize is no ordinary company. Founded in 1953, when Ingredion, then operating under a different name, arrived in Pakistan as the country’s very first corn refiner, Rafhan has grown into an agro-industrial titan. It runs three production facilities across the country, churning out starch and food ingredients at a scale more than five times larger than its closest competitor. Its market value? A staggering Rs100 billion, roughly $355 million.
Karachi-based brokerage firm Arif Habib Limited, which served as Ingredion’s exclusive financial adviser on the deal, did not mince words about its significance. “This landmark transaction ranks among the largest M&A deals in Pakistan in nearly two decades,” said Shahid Ali Habib, CEO of Arif Habib Ltd., calling Rafhan a “market leader” by every meaningful measure.
For Nishat Group, acquiring a controlling stake in such a deeply entrenched, technically sophisticated company marks a striking leap of ambition. For Ingredion, it is not an exit, the American firm will hold onto a strategic minority stake and continue lending its technical expertise and global networks to the venture.
In a country where foreign investors have often packed their bags and left quietly, this deal tells a different story. It is a story of transition, of Pakistani private capital stepping forward to carry an industry forward, one kernel of corn at a time.
