Profit@Profitpk
“Meeting Muhammad Ali Tabba today is probably a bit like meeting Cornelius Vanderbilt in the 1850s or Dhirubhai Ambani in the 1980s. Middle-aged, already rich, somewhat well known, and accomplished enough, he might choose to coast by on the strength of his laurels, but you can tell this man is far from done building his empire.
The past decade has been a rough one for the Pakistani economy, and the past five years in particular have been some of the worst in the nation’s history. Other Pakistani billionaires and centimillionaires have paused or scaled back their ambitions. Tabba appears to be continuing apace.
(To be clear, we are not referring to Tabba as a billionaire as a rhetorical flourish. Profit’s preliminary estimates of the value of his and his immediate family’s shares in the businesses they own suggest that his effective net worth may approach or even exceed $1.5 billion.)
He is by no means alone in continuing to invest in Pakistan during this time. Fatima Fertilizers continues to invest heavily in new ventures, Arif Habib is making bold bets on privatization, and Engro is executing a strategic pivot towards becoming an infrastructure development company.
But the sheer breadth of ambition displayed by the Yunus Brothers Group – of which Lucky Cement and the other operating companies in Tabba’s empire are a part – is unique.
Over the past decade, the conglomerate has launched and expanded its joint ventures in its historic core business of cement manufacturing with partners in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It launched a partnership with Kia Corporation to assemble the South Korean brand’s cars and SUVs in Pakistan, and then also launched a partnership with Samsung to assemble smartphones in Pakistan as well. It has also acquired ICI and Pfizer’s assets in Pakistan.
And that is just what has already been launched. The conglomerate is also in a joint venture to mine copper and gold in Balochistan, and has just announced that its car assembly business will also partner with the Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group to start assembling their AION and HYPTEC brands of electric vehicles in Pakistan as well.
So, what makes Muhammad Ali Tabba different? It helps to understand where he is in the arc of his family’s rise.”
profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2026/04/06/tab…
