The Dawood Group () is a

group of companies A corporate group, company group or business group, also formally known as a group of companies, is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of gr ...

headquartered in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. It is active in diverse businesses and industries of the Dawood family-business and is owned by Dawood family.

History

Dawood Group was founded by Ahmed Dawood. Ahmed Dawood was one of the country's senior industrialists who was by 1933 with his firm the biggest supplier of imported

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. '' Thread'' is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern ...

to the textile mills in India. He left India after the partition and migrated with his three brothers Suleman Dawood, Siddique Dawood, and Sattar Dawood. The Dawood Corporation was the first entity set up in

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, UK, to start business activities in 1948. It started initially from a small office and a shop in Karachi but their business grew over the coming decades. While in 1970 all the undertakings together made it count as one of the largest business groups in the country, the following year marked an abrupt change: Following the creation of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

in 1971, almost 60% of the businesses led by Ahmed Dawood and all investments in

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

were lost due to the nationalisation there. The remaining enterprises in Pakistan suffered further setbacks after the

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

in the early-mid-1970s.

Former subsidiaries

West Pakistan (later Pakistan)

Burewala Textile Mills The Dawood Group () is a group of companies headquartered in Karachi. It is active in diverse businesses and industries of the Dawood family-business and is owned by Dawood family. History Dawood Group was founded by Ahmed Dawood. Ahmed Dawoo ...

, acquired in 1957 from

Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) () is a state corporation of Pakistan working under Ministry of Industries and Production (Pakistan), Ministry of Industries and Production. History Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation ...

and later merged into Dawood Lawrencepur Limited in 2004 * Central Insurance Company, now known as Cyan Limited * Dawood Mines, it was established with a

paid-up capital Paid-in capital (also paid-up capital and contributed capital) is financial capital, capital that is contributed to a corporation by investors by purchase of stock from the corporation, the primary market, not by purchase of stock in th ...

of and was involved in

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

* Dawood Cotton Mills Limited, merged into Dawood Lawrencepur Limited in 2004 * Dilon Limited, merged into Dawood Lawrencepur Limited * Lawrencepur Woolen & Textile Mills Limited, merged into Dawood Lawrencepur Limited * Memon Cooperative Bank, it was founded in 1958 by Dawood family as an intra-caste credit bank for Memon community. The bank had a paid-up capital of and was nationalised in 1974. * Dawood Petroleum, nationalised in 1973, now part of

Pakistan State Oil Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSOCL) operating as PSO, is a Karachi-based, state-owned energy company. Established in 1976, the company operates in the oil and gas industry.As of 2024, it maintains a network of 3,580 retail outlets, nine i ...

East Pakistan (later Bangladesh)

Karnaphuli Paper Mills Karnaphuli Paper Mills, located in Chandraghona, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh, is a state-owned pulp and paper manufacturer established in 1951 by Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC). The Dawoods took over from PIDC 1959. Foll ...

* Karnaphuli Rayon & Chemical * Dawood Jute Mills * Dawood Shipping

References

Dawood family Conglomerate companies of Pakistan {{Pakistan-company-stub

History

Former subsidiaries

West Pakistan (later Pakistan)

East Pakistan (later Bangladesh)

See also

References