PACRA Maintains the Entity Ratings of Zarea Limited

Zarea Limited ('ZAL' or the 'Company') is a tech-enabled B2B e-commerce platform digitizing Pakistan's fragmented industrial and agricultural supply chains, eliminating intermediaries. ZAL has rapidly scaled its transaction volume, surpassing 22,000+ orders across 50+ cities, secured long tenor offtake agreements with blue chip corporates, and built substantial switching costs through its agile microservices architecture and real-time order tracking. Backed by a proprietary 10-year commodity data repository, ZAL is a credible supply chain partner across verticals including cement, steel, fertilizers, corn, wheat, agriculture biomass and coal, and is the first structured corporate player in the previously informal agri-biomass segment, aligning with the broader formalization of agricultural procurement in Pakistan. The Company operates through two subsidiaries, Zarea Agri-Tech (Private) Limited, handling commodity trading, and Zarea Commerce FZCO, a Dubai-based (IFZA Free Zone) subsidiary supporting regional expansion. The rating is anchored by ZAL's adequate corporate governance, led by a seven-member board chaired by Ms. Misbah Momin and supported by independent board committees, with operational oversight well-distributed across Sales & Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and Technology. On the financial front, during 9MFY26 (standalone) basis, ZAL posted revenue of PKR 2,108.06 million, up 161.7% over PKR 805.42 million in the corresponding period last year (9MFY25), driven by growth in platform usage fees and tech-enabled agri-commodity trading. Gross profit increased 58.5% to PKR 585.39 million (9MFY25: PKR 369.31 million) on improved scale efficiencies. Other income rose to PKR 492.97 million (9MFY25: PKR 160.79 million) on the back of gains on the Company’s short-term investment portfolio. Consequently, profit after taxation grew 82.2% to PKR 826.48 million (9MFY25: PKR 453.51 million), translating into earnings per share of PKR 3.15 (9MFY25: PKR 1.73). The Company's equity base strengthened to PKR 2.84 billion as at March 31, 2026 (June 2025: PKR 2.28 billion), while total assets increased to PKR 4,236.45 million (June 2025: PKR 2,409.20 million), supported by continued deployment of IPO proceeds, now fully utilized across working capital, logistics, technology, marketing, office & vehicles, and human resource. Total liabilities stood at PKR 1,396.04 million against total equity of PKR 2,840.41 million as at the period end (March 31, 2026); these liabilities included the Sukuk of PKR 1,021.43 million as a short-term liability, which was subsequently settled in full upon its maturity. The current ratio remains healthy at 2.6x (current assets: PKR 3,519.93 million; current liabilities: PKR 1,376.78 million), while conventional bank financing remains modest at PKR 31.33 million (long-term: PKR 16.09 million; current portion: PKR 15.24 million). ZAL's liquidity remains supported by a sizeable short-term investment portfolio of PKR 2,356.34 million. To strengthen its working capital position, ZAL has pursued a structured Sukuk-based financing strategy. The Company's first Sukuk issuance of PKR 1.0 billion has since matured, reflecting timely repayment discipline. This continued reliance on Islamic financing instruments underscores ZAL's proactive approach toward diversifying its funding base and supporting its working capital as the Company scales.
The assigned ratings remain contingent upon ZAL's ability to sustain margin resilience, strengthen liquidity buffers, and preserve capital discipline amid scale-up, with continued investment in the agri-biomass vertical and operating efficiency gains pivotal to the credit profile.

About the Entity
Zarea Limited commenced operations as Vision 2A (Pvt.) Limited on September 16, 2020, was rebranded in August 2022, and converted into a public limited company on April 15, 2024. Headquartered at NASTP, Lahore Cantt, ZAL is majority-owned by its founder and CEO, Mr. Ali Alam Qamar.