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The historic success of the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of 2. 5 % shares of
OGDCL (107.5 million shares), which received overwhelming response from the
general public and institutional investors heavily over subscripted was a
result of the hard work put together by the Privatisation Commission, Ministry
of Petroleum & Natural Resources, OGDCL officials, Lead Manager for the
transaction KASB Securities and the advertisers Orient McCANN Erikson.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment
stated this while addressing the PC officers and staff in a ceremony held to
appreciate the services rendered for the launching of OGDCL IPO here today.
It was also a record that in the first year of the elected government the
privatisation worth Rs. 17 billion was conducted, which was also another
remarkable achievement, he said. He further stated that the performance of the
Privatisation was always evaluated through the quantum of the proceeds earned
and handing over of Public Sector entities to the quality players through a
transparent and competitive process, which was not in the case of other
Ministries and the departments.
Dr. Hafeez Shaikh said that the Offer for Sale of 2.5% shares of OGDCL by the
government had been a tremendous success. Due to heavy support from both,
individual as well as institutional investors, the offer had been
oversubscribed by more than seven times attracting an amount of more than Rs.
24 billion, he said. The amount of subscription received has no parallel in
the history of the local stock market. The offer size as well as the
subscription received had made the transaction the largest and most successful
pubic offering to date, he added.
The Minister further said that the listing of OGDCL shares had increased
market capitalization by more than Rs. 170 billion, which translates to about
US$ 3 billion. In terms of volume, it has been the highest traded stock during
the last few sessions, which shows the interest, generated by the share in the
market. The OGDCL share is sure to make a place in the KSE-100 Index in its
next revision and will continue to be one of the most heavily traded stocks in
the market keeping in view the float available with common investors.
The Minister stated that the listing of OGDCL was a big step towards the
deepening and broadening of the stock markets and the heavy response from
investors gave a clear indication of the excess liquidity available. An
encouraging factor for the markets in this instance was the participation of
all categories of individual investors, including housewives and pensioners, a
large proportion of them were first time investors for whom this investment
was a learning experience and many of these investors might continue to invest
in the stock market increasing the investor base significantly, the Minister
hoped.
Dr. Hafeez Shaikh said that it was the basic desire of the government to make
the people of Pakistan the real owners of mega entities and for this purpose
after OGDCL IPO the IPO of KAPCO and PPL would soon be offered, while in
January the Public Offer of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) shares would be
made. All out efforts were being made to accelerate the pace of privatisation
process of all the ongoing and upcoming entities, he stated.
Overall, the listing and offer for sale of OGDCL has been a landmark
transaction for the capital markets, the government, the Privatisation
Commission, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources as well as the
Company, OGDCL, itself. The investor response has clearly indicated the market
appetite for good investment opportunities and bodes well for future offers
for sale of high performance companies. CCOP has already given its go ahead
for exercising the green shoe option for additional offer of 2.5 % shares of
OGDCL due to the substantial and record subscription in the issue.
The Secretary Petroleum & Natural Resources Mr. M Abdullah Yusuf, the
Secretary Ministry of Privatisation Mr. Ahmad Waqar, Mr. Muhammad Afzal
Chairman OGDCL, Mr. Najam Kamal Hyder, MD, OGDCL and other senior officials
were also present on this occasion.