Being one of the leading business groups in the country, the group has come a long way since starting operations in early 1970s. Initially starting out as a construction and contracting company by the name of Omar Associates (pvt.) Ltd, with the purpose of undertaking contracts of all types of civil, electrical and mechanical projects, the group has now grown to encompass various companies undertaking diverse industrial projects. From the initial days the company remained focused on taking on industrial projects in the private as well as corporate sectors and successfully completed a variety of projects with the Pakistan Armed Forces, Port Qasim Authority, Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and other municipal bodies. In the mid 80’s the company went into a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian firm for undertaking international projects in Saudi Arabia. For the next 5 years, the company successfully undertook and concluded various residential and commercial projects in the Middle East to add to its growing portfolio. With the induction of new directors in the company in the early 90’s, new business lines were added and hence a new company by the name of Capricorn Associates was formed as part of the group. The company was responsible for launching the concept of plastic cards in Pakistan and came up with Pakistan’s first discount card namely Capricorn Discount Card which was a huge success and opened the gateway for other card-based businesses. The new company then went on to establish further additional business lines including, heavy equipment rental as well as commercial kitchen equipment supply. It also undertook various construction projects with multinational entities and played pivotal roles in the construction of Quaid-e-Azam International airport in Karachi as well as setting up of various IPPs.
