Trans World Associates (Pvt.) Limited (“the Company”/ “Transworld”/ “TWA”) was incorporated in Pakistan as a private limited company on October 01, 1980, under the Companies Act, 1913 (now the Companies Act, 2017). The registered and head office of the Company is situated at 24, Retalia Building, G-6 Markaz, Islamabad.

The Company is a subsidiary of Orastar Limited, which holds a 90% stake. Three companies currently operate under the TWA umbrella: (i) Trans World Enterprise Services (Pvt.) Ltd. (TES), (ii) Trans World Infrastructure Services (Pvt.) Ltd. (TIS), and (iii) TES Media (Pvt.) Ltd. (TMPL).

TWA commenced operations in 2006. Its principal activity is to establish and operate telecommunication systems and provide Long Distance and International (LDI) telecommunication services under the license issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Pakistan currently has three Tier-1 submarine cable operators, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), TWA, and Cybernet. TWA wholly owns and operates two submarine cable systems, TW-1 (a ~1,300km Karachi–UAE–Oman link) and SEA-ME-WE-5 (landing station), and is a consortium partner in SEA-ME-WE-6 (SMW6), for which substantial capex has already been incurred. Previously guided for operational readiness by 1QCY27, SMW6’s timeline has since slipped further, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted construction access to the Gulf Extension’s remaining landing segments (UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman), and a specialized cable-laying vessel assigned to the Pakistan segment was disabled in a collision at Karachi Port. Consequently, the previously revised Project Acceptance date of March 30, 2027 is now subject to further uncertainty’ however, the management indicated that KSA-Bahrain crossing has made some progress and the regulatory approvals are almost final and the partial route can be used as the network has been laid by the Company. TWA also serves as the landing partner for the Karachi branch of the 2Africa submarine cable system, 2Africa’s Gulf Extension has similarly been affected by the regional disruption, and a revised completion timeline is uncertain.

Orastar Limited holds 90% of TWA’s shares; the remaining 10% is held by the heirs of the late Dr. Omar Bin Abdul Muniem Al Zawawi. Orastar is a BVI-incorporated company managed by directors based in Jersey.

Orastar Limited is an institutional investor focused on private-equity placements, principally in unlisted technology, IT, and power-generation assets. Orastar increased its stake in TWA to 90% in January 2022, reflecting sustained confidence in Pakistan’s telecom and IT sectors; no change in ownership has occurred since.

The Sponsor’s investment profile spans both local and international jurisdictions, reflecting diversified experience and an ability to navigate complex operating and financing environments, relevant given the geopolitically-driven execution risk TWA is currently managing on SMW6.

Sponsor financial strength is assessed as adequate to strong, underpinned by Orastar’s institutional private-equity backing. It is worth noting that TWA’s own financing plan (the new bilateral facility and the existing Meezan Bank syndicate facility) is being arranged at the operating-company level rather than through sponsor equity injection.

The Board comprises eight directors, six non-executive and two executives. Mr. Junaid Iqbal Khan serves as the CEO, while also acting as a non-executive director on the board.

The Board continues to combine deep telecom-sector and financial expertise. Mr. Junaid Iqbal Khan is a former senior executive at Zain, Motorola, Jazz, and PTCL. Mr. Iskander Alex Shalaby is the former Chairman & CEO of Mobinil and a former AT&T executive. Syed Bashir Ahmad was formerly Head of Private Banking at ABN AMRO, ING, and Bank of Singapore, and is currently CEO of Halkin Investments. Mr. Iain David Johns is Group Head of Private Client Services at JTC and holds board roles at MAS Singapore and the Jersey FSC. Syed Mukhtar Ahmed is the former EVP International Communications at PTCL and advises Transworld. Mr. Pervez Iftikhar is an independent telecom policy consultant and founding CEO of USF Pakistan. Mr. Khursheed Ashraf holds board/committee roles at Siemens LLC Oman and NEWREST WACASCO. Mr. Nauman Rafique is a seasoned finance and legal professional with nearly 30 years of experience in audit, taxation, and corporate governance. He is a Senior Partner at Suriya Nauman Rehan & Co. (UHY International), served as CFO for the US$800 million Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project and advising the World Bank, ADB, and GIZ on public sector tax reforms. Collectively, they bring over four decades of leadership experience each, ensuring robust governance and strategic oversight.

The Board operates through three committees, a Finance Committee, an Audit & Tax Committee, and a Technical & Investment Committee. All board members are professionals and have diverse experience in the different market segments related to IT, telecommunication, and banking.

The Company’s financial statements for FY2025 were audited by A. F. Ferguson & Co., an auditor categorized in the ‘A’ category under the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) list of approved auditors. The auditors did not concur with management’s accounting treatment of expensing borrowing costs incurred in connection with the financing of the SMW6 project, with the matter being highlighted in their audit report for the year ended December 31, 2025. Following the completion of the FY2025 audit, the Company appointed KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co., also an ‘A’ category auditor under the SBP list, as its statutory auditor.

TWA has a lean organizational structure, and a majority of the senior management has been associated with the Company for a long time. The structure of the Company is divided into different functional departments, namely: (i) Finance, (ii) Engineering, (iii) Commercial, (iv) HR, (v) IT, (vi) Government Relations & Admin, (vii) Internal Audit, and (viii) Governance.

The management team of Trans World is well-experienced and led by Mr. Saad Muzaffar Waraich, the President, who is an experienced ICT leader, with a background spanning technology, organizational transformation, and sales operations. He has held senior roles at global and national firms, including Nokia, IBM, Comptel, and Nokia Siemens Networks, as well as major Pakistani telcos like PTCL and Ufone. He is supported by Mr. Aasif Inam, Deputy CEO & COO, who brings extensive telecom-sector experience driving strategic growth and innovation. Mr. Naveed Malik, the CFO, has 30+ years of experience and has been associated with TWA since 2010.

Currently, TWA has Pricing, Procurement & Investment committees in place, with departmental heads holding regular joint sessions to align on business strategy.

The Company has strengthened its IT capabilities through an outsourced technology model, enabling access to specialized expertise and scalable IT support. A real-time management information and dashboard system, based on Power BI, supports management oversight and facilitates timely identification and resolution of performance shortfalls. The outsourced IT function provides support across key areas including infrastructure, operations, application development, and ERP & CRM systems.

The Company maintains a stringent control environment, including an independent internal audit function and regular third-party audits, and has an established Cyber Security Framework, relevant given TWA’s role as critical national digital infrastructure. In 2025, TWA established an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework to further strengthen internal controls and risk governance, a positive development that should support more structured monitoring of the geopolitical, execution, and financing risks now facing the Company.

Pakistan’s telecom sector is mature on subscriber metrics, total subscriptions reached 210mln in July 2026 at ~83.35% tele density, but structurally underpenetrated on data infrastructure. Sector revenue rose to PKR 1,075bln in CY25 (CY24: PKR 957bln, +12.3%), driven by ARPU-led growth and data monetization, while mobile data usage grew to ~14,153 petabytes in FY25 (+8.7% YoY), sustaining derived demand for the international and domestic bandwidth capacity TWA supplies. Pakistan’s installed international bandwidth capacity stood at ~17.2Tbps by mid-2025 (~13.0Tbps activated)[MO1] , carried across SMW4, SMW5, IMEWE, AAE-1, PEACE, TW-1, 2Africa and the upcoming SMW6 and Africa1, with landing rights concentrated among PTCL (SMW4, IMEWE, AAE-1, Africa1), TWA (SMW5, TW-1, 2Africa), and Cybernet (PEACE). Regulatory developments, RoW abolition, the National Fiberization/Connectivity Plans, and district-level class licensing, are broadly supportive of continued bandwidth demand, while PTCL’s completed Telenor acquisition (Dec-25) and the finalized Fixed Satellite Services framework (Apr-26, paving the way for Starlink) introduce medium-term competitive and substitution risk. Wholesale bandwidth pricing continues to decline sharply on a per-Mbps basis, a global, capacity-driven trend, requiring TWA and peers to grow volumes and diversify into data centers and managed services to sustain margins. The medium-term industry outlook remains constructive, anchored in structural data-demand growth and supportive regulation, though near-term execution risk on Gulf-corridor cable projects and pricing pressure are the key monitorable.  [MO1]Please include most latest available data for 2026.

TWA remains one of Pakistan’s three Tier-1 international bandwidth providers alongside PTCL and Cybernet, and is the only private-sector operator to wholly own a submarine cable system (TW-1), in addition to its SMW5 landing station and consortium interests in SMW6 and landing partner for 2Africa. PTCL remains the dominant incumbent by scale and balance-sheet depth, a position reinforced by its completed acquisition of Telenor Pakistan (Dec-25) and the Telenor–Ufone merger, raising the prospect of a more vertically-integrated competitor able to bundle mobile, fixed, and wholesale capacity, a development that bears monitoring for its effect on TWA’s carrier/wholesale demand over time. Cybernet (PEACE cable stake, alongside its StormFiber retail business) and SCO (terrestrial Pak-China OFC route) represent smaller alternative capacity sources. On infrastructure footprint, TWA’s network spans its wholly-owned TW-1 cable, SMW5 landing rights, ongoing domestic long-haul/metro network upgrades under its 2023 LDI license, and a newly completed data center at its CLS Building landing station in Karachi (already generating recurring tenant revenue). This route diversity has, however, been tested by disruptions linked to regional conflicts; in response, TWA has upgraded SMW5 and TW-1 to meet rising domestic demand, including 5G readiness, while diversifying domestic backhaul via LDI-licensed long-haul arrangements with Wateen and Jazz. Strategically, the Company continues to pursue cost-saving domestic long-haul initiatives alongside its international capacity build-out, positioning TWA to capture continued wholesale demand growth once SMW6 capacity is eventually commissioned, while its multi-cable, multi-route profile remains a differentiator versus smaller Tier-1/Tier-2 peers.

TWA’s revenue increased to ~PKR 15,713mln in CY25 (CY24: ~PKR 13,311mln; CY23: ~PKR 10,618mln), reflecting 18.0% YoY growth (CY24: 25.4%; CY23: 21.4%; 3-year CAGR: 21.6%). By segment, Carrier remained the largest contributor at ~42% of CY25 sales, followed by Wholesale and International Business at ~18% each. Corporate & Other (~8%), LDI Voice (~3%), and inter-company revenue, primarily from related party Transworld Enterprise Services (~11%), accounted for the remaining revenue. Revenue growth moderated further to 9.5% YoY in 1QCY26 (Mar-26).

Gross margin improved modestly to 47.3% in CY25 (CY24: 46.8%), although it remained below the CY23 level of 52.2%, indicating a lower margin base amid competitive wholesale bandwidth pricing and higher depreciation following the capitalization of capacity upgrades and long-haul network investments. Operating margin moderated further to 33.9% in CY25 (CY24: 36.2%; CY23: 42.1%), partly reflecting a notable increase in selling and marketing expenses. Net margin declined to 11.3% in CY25 from 16.8% in CY24 (CY23: 17.9%), primarily due to a significant increase in finance costs, which rose to PKR 1,796mln in CY25 from PKR 583mln in CY24 (+208%), alongside a higher effective tax rate of 41.6% (CY24: 31.3%). The increase in finance costs largely reflected borrowing costs associated with the 319-day critical path displacement of the SMW6 cable system, which were expensed rather than capitalized as part of CWIP to ensure appropriate presentation of the related asset.

TWA’s growth prospects remain underpinned by structural demand for international and domestic bandwidth, rising data consumption, 5G readiness, and government fiberization targets (tower fiberization of 60% from ~16–18% currently), and by the Company’s multi-cable, multi-route international profile. Network expansion continues on two fronts: internationally, via SMW6 and the 2Africa landing role; and domestically, via LDI-licensed long-haul/metro upgrades, including the Wateen  and Jazz multi-route fiber lease agreements aimed at reducing domestic bandwidth costs, alongside interim SMW5 and TW-1 capacity additions. Strategic diversification into data-center services offers an adjacent, potentially higher-margin and less commoditized revenue stream, following a path also being pursued by domestic peers. Financing for this pipeline includes a planned bilateral long-term facility via Meezan Bank, timely completion of this facility is an important near-term monitorable given the repayment profile of TWA’s existing ~PKR 10.8bln Meezan syndicate facility. Key constraints to sustainable growth include continued geopolitical/execution risk on Gulf-corridor cable projects, secular per-unit bandwidth pricing erosion common to the industry globally and sustained USD-denominated capex exposure amid PKR volatility. On balance, TWA’s growth trajectory appears sustainable provided the Company successfully manages its financing pipeline and near-term debt-repayment bunching alongside continued execution risk on its international cable projects.

Working-capital management continued to strengthen, with trade receivable days declining to 134 in CY25 (CY24: 145; CY23: 166), while trade payable days remained broadly stable at 83 (CY24: 89; CY23: 84). As a result, net working-capital days improved to 51 in CY25 from 56 in CY24 and 82 in CY23, providing some support to liquidity amid the Company’s ongoing capex-led expansion. The current ratio, however, remained below 1.0x at 0.9x in [MO1] CY25 (CY24: 0.8x; CY23: 1.2x), reflecting the capital-intensive nature of the business and reliance on longer-term funding for investment needs. While this limits the near-term liquidity cushion, the improving working-capital cycle provides some mitigation.  [MO1]This seems to be quite on higher side and does not account for the current portion of long term debts and short term loans. Plz double check.

FCFO increased modestly to ~PKR 4,491mln in CY25 (CY24: ~PKR 4,214mln; CY23: ~PKR 3,985mln), representing 6.6% growth and trailing the 18.0% increase in revenue. Accordingly, cash conversion moderated to 28.6% in CY25 (CY24: 31.7%; CY23: 37.5%), reflecting the pressure on operating margins. Coverage metrics also weakened, with EBITDA/Finance Cost declining to 3.2x in CY25 from 9.5x in CY24 (CY23: 11.0x), while FCFO/Finance Cost moderated to 2.5x from 7.2x (CY23: 8.6x), primarily due to the significant increase in finance costs. Core debt coverage declined to 0.6x in CY25 from 1.2x in CY24 (CY23: 2.9x), indicating a more limited capacity of internally generated cash flows to cover financing costs and near-term debt maturities. This was partly driven by the increase in current maturities of long-term borrowings to PKR 3,323mln in CY25 from PKR 812mln in CY24 (+309%). Consequently, debt payback lengthened to 5.4 years (CY24: 3.6 years; CY23: 3.0 years), while liquid cover moderated to 1.3x (CY24: 2.0x; CY23: 10.3x), following the decline in cash reserves. Overall, coverage metrics indicate some tightening in the Company’s financial flexibility, primarily reflecting higher debt servicing requirements associated with the ongoing capacity expansion and SMW6-related funding needs.

Leverage remained broadly stable, increasing moderately to 48.1% in CY25 from 46.9% in CY24 (CY23: 49.5%), before improving to 45.5% by Mar-26. The increase in CY25 was accompanied by higher short-term borrowings of PKR 1,506mln (CY24: ~PKR 640mln; CY23: PKR 759mln), raising their share of total borrowings to 10.9% from 5.5%. Long-term debt nevertheless remained the primary source of funding at PKR 8,815mln in CY25 (CY24: ~PKR 10,166mln; CY23: ~PKR 9,559mln).

Off-balance-sheet exposure increased to 32.8% in CY25 from 27.3% in CY24 (CY23: 41.4%), largely reflecting outstanding capital commitments related to the SMW6 project and data-center investments. Capex remained elevated at PKR 3,360mln in CY25 (CY24: PKR 2,312mln; CY23: PKR 3,636mln), driven by continued SMW5/TW-1 capacity upgrades and data-center build-out. The investment program was supported in part by additional short-term (a short-term sukuk of ~PKR 1.5bln was also issued in April, 2026) and long-term funding, with net long-term borrowings increasing by ~PKR 1,134mln during CY25. Overall, capitalization remains manageable, although the elevated investment cycle and associated funding requirements continue to place some pressure on leverage and funding mix.