South Asia Group of Companies is a joint venture concerned between Pakistan and Norwegian entrepreneurs who have joined hands together to provide professional services to the business community involved in shipping, transport / logistics, trading and information technology industries directly or indirectly and in need of professional advice and assistance .  

The partners in the joint venture have brought in their professional marine, logistics, and administrative experience gained over several years of their carrier to cater the needs of group's diversified field of business activities.

The Norwegian Partners:  

The Norwegian partners are SSB group . Over the last 15 years, the group has played a very positive role in capacity of desponent owners and co-investors in some 30 new & second hand vessels and 15 offshore oil drilling rigs & drill ships.  

The group was formed in 1982 and since then been very active as :-

The chairman of SSB group , Mr. Bodtker is a post graduate in economics from the University of Oslo. He has been mainly involved in ship owning and ship finance industry in Norway, Belgium and UK.

The Pakistani Counter Part:

The chairman of the south Asia group of companies is rear admiral (retired) Naeem beg . Beside his dominating position in Pakistan navy, he has contributed his professional guidance and assistance to various government organisations. To name a few:

The managing director and chief executive of the group is captain Naim Khurshid Mirza. He acquired his master's certificate from UK. His various involvement with shipping sector is summarised below:

The head office of the group and its subsidiaries is located at Karachi,

Pakistan, the hub for all trading and shipping activities of the country. The group maintains liaison and representative offices at Oslo & London besides branch offices in various parts of Pakistan.

The activities of the group is quite diversified. It ranges from a normal customs clearing house to ship owning to management of ocean going vessels to movement of project cargo and transportation of heavy lifts be it by land, sea or air. Lately in order to diversify the activities, the group has opened up an information technology wing .

South Asia group has spread its wings in a very short span of time. During the course of last five years the group has been involved in management of various vessels on the ship management , chartering & sub chartering of different kind of vessels on the chartering side , handling of different kind of vessels at Karachi port & port bin Qasim on behalf of the owners being

Represented by the group on agency side and movement of freight for the shippers and consignees using the efficient net work of agencies in different parts of the world on the freight forwarding sector.

In the view of the diversified activities, it was felt that subsidiaries with independent entities be established and each be given different task and target to achieve.

At present the group's subsidiaries are:

South Asia holdings

The company was formed in October 1995 as a ship owing company. The operation was started by acquiring two SD 14 type ships MY Danyal Express and Navira Express . The third ship was acquired in 1996 MT Helena . After running these vessels successfully for a period of four years they were subsequently scraped due to their age . All these vessels were under South Asia Ship Management controlled, who acted as technical / commercial managers.  

Besides ship management, the company (as port agents) had been representing those owners whose ships call Karachi & port bin Qasim to either load or discharge various types of cargoes.

The company has been very actively involved with those principals who are regular contractors to government of Pakistan for transport of bulk wheat from USA, Australian & Canadian port. Almost a million tonne of wheat has been handled during the years. Also performed coal “COA” o.2 mil tones for Paksteel from Australia / Karachi .

Besides wheat, various bulk cargoes, containers and tankers have also been handled on behalf of the foreign owners/operators.

In 2003 the South Asia Ship Management became the commercial manager of a container line which is operated in Arabian Gulf to Iraq by one 300 TEU vessel and will expand shortly after the addition of another vessel of 4/500 TEU vessel to run from India / Pakistan to upper gulf.

The agency activities were transferred to South Asia Agencies (PVT.) Ltd. When it came into existence in June 1997.

South Asia Agencies (Pvt.) Ltd. - “SAA”.

The company appeared on the map of the business world in June 1997 with an aim of providing shipping & cargo services to the foreign ship owners on one hand and services related to trading of commodities to the business community on the other.

Although the organisation is very young in age but in terms of performance and professional skills / expertise, the management of “SAA” did not have any difficulty to cater the needs of their various principles due to the fact that the function of ship & cargo services were already been performed under the banner of South Asia Ship Management and it was just a demand of the day and the concept of diversifying the business horizon for improvement and exclusive service in more efficient manner.

Lately the trading department has also been added to the activities of South Asia Agencies with an aim to enhance the trading activities besides the shipping as well.

Hence the organisation is divided into two major departments, namely shipping & trading. Both shipping and trading departments has got veteran managers at their helm, who have vast professional skills and expertise in their respective field.

Future plans:

The above is a short history of the group's achievements, activities and intentions over a short spell of time. The strong will and dedication of the

Group's management and senior managers, does not allow the engines to either halt or slow down. The masters on the helm have dedicated motives among themselves to keep on moving forward without looking behind for even better and better future.

The future plans of the group are:

Group bankers:

Full style of the head office for all the member companies:

Time towers
Suite 102, 1st Floor, 31 C
Stadium Lane No 1
Phase v, D.H.A
Karachi. Pakistan

Tel no 92 21 5463065
Fax no 92 21 5350831
Mob no 92 300 8220 874