Karachi: The Lucky Cement has formally informed the Pakistan Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange that it has decided to set up an associated company to undertake the manufacturing, assembling, marketing, distribution, sale, after-sales service, import and export of all types of KIA Motor Vehicles, with a proposed equity investment of up to Rs12 billion, divided into 1200 million ordinary shares of Rs 10 each. The company also informed PSX that it was considering initiating due diligence exercise to evaluate potential acquisition of North plant of Dewan Cement, situated in Hattar, Haripur with production capacity of 1.134 million tonnes per year. The company also has decided to increase its existing cement grinding capacity from 0.871 million tons to 1.742 million ton per annum. The expansion would be financed by internally generated cash flows of the existing grinding unit. Analysts believe that new venture of the company will help meet the growing demand of automobiles in the country as Pakistan’s car penetration of 13 vehicles per thousand persons was lower than the regional average of 162. The strong potential for automobile growth due to higher disposable income & low interest rate environment and company’s hands-on expertise to manage diversified businesses, provide a lucrative opportunity to the company to exploit growing local automobile industry.