Mian Mansha: patriarch and perfectionist
Mian Mansha: building a business empire amid social and political turmoil
Nishat's plans to list in London
Nishat: investing in Pakistan's infrastructure
MCB gets a foreign stakeholder
Mansha’s company’s fortune has been built slowly, and with the strategic and financial support of an array of wealthy Chinioti families. MCB Bank – founded in 1947, nationalized in 1974 and reprivatized in 1991 – is no flash-in-the-pan lender. MCB’s asset base has been steadily accumulating capital over the past 17 years, turning it into the country’s leading private lender. This steady-as-she-goes attitude toward expansion is likely to appeal to investors in today’s climate. Mansha is no fan of the flighty financial system that wrought the current credit crunch, or of the expansion-at-all-costs attitude of the banks that got us in this mess. "We need to get back to the good old days," he says. "The way that banks used to work – the likes of [the UK’s] Barclays or NatWest – was much better. [Troubled US lender] Citi isn’t a bank any more – it’s just a hedge fund."
The focal point of Nishat Group is MCB, the best financial service provider in the country and Pakistan’s largest private bank.