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Open Bidding for Associated Cement Rohri and Thatta Cement companies
organized by Privatisation Commission (PC) under the supervision of Dr. Abdul
Hafeez Shaikh, the Federal Minister for Privatisation and Investment, who is
also the Chairman of Privatisation Commission was held here today in the
presence of the members of PC Board and a large number of the representatives
of print and electronic media.
The open bidding for the sale of the assets of the closed unit of Associated
Cement Rohri Limited free from all liabilities received the highest offer of
Rs. 255 million from National Transport Company, Karachi, which was considered
satisfactory. The highest bidder intends to revive this unit, which will not
only offer job opportunities in the area but it will also generate economic
activity. PC had received 25 Expression of Interest for the sale of the assets
of Associated Cement (Rohri) Limited, which has a production capacity of
270,000 Metric tones per annum.
The parties, which took part in the open bidding process for the sale of the
assets of Associated Cement Rohri Limited after depositing the earnest money
of Rs. 250 million were 1. A A Enterprises, Karachi, 2 Al-Hamza Ship
Breaking Company, 3. Bestway Cement Limited 4. D. G. Khan Cement Company, 5.
Export International, 6. Jamal-ud-din & company, 7. Meezan Ship Breaker, Kyc,
8. National Transport Company, Karachi, and 9. Suresh Kumar & Brothers.
AC Rohri owns about 195. 3 acres of purchased land (which includes some
portion which are encroached). It also owns 24.45 acres of agriculture land
located in the vicinity. The plant is located on an area of about 36 acres. Of
the land under residential colony, 127 acres are well developed. All required
infrastructure facilities are also available on the site. The factory is
located 7 k.m. from Sukkur in the Sindh Province. The payment of the Golden
Handshake to its employees has already been finalized without any burden on
the buyer. The factory was closed down in 1999.
Four parties who submitted earnest money worth Rs. 50 million took part in
the open bidding process for acquiring the minimum of 90 % State Cement
Corporation of Pakistan's shareholding (71,797,050 shares) in Thatta Cement
Company Limited. These included Al-Abbas Group of Companies, Karachi, Bestway
Cement Limited, Islamabad, Haji Saifullah & Group, Islamabad and Star Cotton
Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi. The highest bid received Rs. 6. 70 per share
was offered by Haji Saifullah, while the offer of Rs. 6.60 given by Al-Abbas
Group of Companies got the second position and Star Cotton Corporation
remained third with an offer of Rs. 6.30 per share. However, PC has asked the
highest bidder to raise their bid to Rs. 9 per share within a period of three
days for further processing the transaction and in case of no response the
other two parties will be asked to do so respectively. PC had received seven
Expression of Interest from interested parties for the purchase of minimum of
90 % shares of Thatta Cement Company Limited (TCCL) on 'as is where is' basis.
Thatta Cement Company Ltd was incorporated in 1980 as a limited company under
Companies Ordinance 1913 (now Companies Ordinance 1984) and is a wholly owned
subsidiary of the State Cement Corporation of Pakistan (Pvt) Limited (SCCP).
The Unit is located at 115 km in the North East of Karachi at Makli
Ghulamullah Road, District Thatta.
The plant is based on dry technology and has capacity of 1000 tonnes per day
production. The entire plant and machinery was imported from Mitsubishi
Corporation Japan while the slag-grinding mill has been supplied by HMC. The
plant started commercial production in December 1982 and is fully operative.
Its main products include Ordinary Portland Cement, Slag Cement and Sulphate
Resisting Cement while Lime Stone, Clay/Shale, Iron Ore, Gypsum and Slag are
the inputs/ raw material. The unit is located on 236 acres of land
consisting of factory, officer and workers colonies complete with all
facilities along with 4725 acres of mining lease land (Quarry). The highest
bids to be received for both the companies will be sent to Cabinet Committee
on Privatisation with the PC Board recommendations for approval or otherwise.
The earlier bidding for TCCL was held on September 7, 2002 but the successful
bidder defaulted and failed to deposit the bid amount as per sale schedule.
Addressing on this occasion Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the Government
was determined to accelarate the pace of privatisation with utmost
transparency and to bring in the private sector for the economic revival. We
would never sell our national assets in haste and on throw away price, he
added.