The IGI Insurance Company, a unit of the powerful Packages group, acquired around 70pc controlling shares of the American Life Insurance Company last Thursday. “The thought behind the move is to secure a footprint in the life insurance business,” the chief executive of IGI Insurance, Jalees Ahmed Siddiqi, told Dawn.

Among the leaders in the general insurance sector, IGI fortified its position by adding the life insurance arm.

But IGI Insurance is not alone in the race to consolidate — ‘all under one roof’. It is a policy feverishly followed by corporates, both in the financial and industrial sectors. Insurance, banks, oil and gas, cement and textile companies are all seeking to be ‘self-sufficient’.

On the banking horizon, conventional banks without Islamic banking counters are thought to be lacking an essential service. The tremendous growth in Shariah-compliant banking has forced even the most stiff- necked old fashioned bankers to either expand vertically into this segment, or more easily, just acquire an up and running Islamic bank.

Meezan Bank — which is Shariah-compliant — announced earlier last month that it was in discussion with HSBC Bank Middle East — a conventional bank — for possible acquisition of HSBC’s Pakistan operations.

Only a month before that, MCB Bank had declared that it had entered into an agreement with majority shareholders to acquire 55pc interest in the Shariah-compliant Burj Bank.

In the cement industry, where demand has surged and peace among cement manufacturers has given the sector pricing power, many companies are either going into expansion or stepping up buyout activity. Big players are known to be eyeing smaller units such as Lafarge Cement and Pioneer Cement.

Going forward, large cement companies cherish plans to establish in-house plants to produce packaging bags — a major component of the cost of production. And in order to save up on fuel, cement companies are setting up coal-fired power facilities to switch from costly oil-fired plants.

Even textile companies are anxious to ride out the power challenge. Nishat Mills Limited, the largest in the sector, has expressed interest in participating in a bid for the development of 590MW Mahal hydropower project on River Jhelum.

In the oil and gas sector, the state-run Pakistan State Oil plans to set up an oil refinery. At about this time last year, PSO signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for setting up an oil refinery in the province with a capacity of 40,000 barrels per day. Besides, it may also consolidate its shareholding in Pakistan Refinery Limited.

Some companies are also now focusing more on their core activities and shedding off excess fat. In an earlier restructuring, ICI Limited spun off its paint business into a separate listed entity, AkzoNobel.

And after a change of hands, ICI made its first foray into the food business by participating in the import and distribution of ‘Morinaga,’ a Japanese company that makes a range of infant formula and nutrition products.

In the summer of 2013, Clariant Pakistan, a unit in the chemical sector, decided to spin-off all but three of its 11 business units that it wished to remain focused upon. And as competition in telecommunication intensifies, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company sought to acquire Warid.

The desire of companies to be big and all-encompassing is fuelled by various factors, but the main one is to cut costs; taking on the challenge of the survival of the fittest is another.

“Sooner or later, smaller banks, insurance and leasing companies, mutual funds and corporates in various industries would have to integrate into bigger units or they would drown in a sea of competition,” says the president of a smaller bank that already is feeling the pinch.

In the financial sector, regulators have always advocated developing fewer and stronger entities rather than retaining a large number of weaker and sick banks and insurance companies.