CCOP COMMENDS UNPRECEDENTED RS. 20 BILLION SUBSCRIPTIONS BY PUBLIC IN OGDCL IPO

Islamabad, November 17, 2003

The Cabinet Committee On Privatisation (CCOP) in its meeting held here today decided to exercise the green shoe option in full in case of OGDCL's IPO. The government had invited applications from Nov-10-15, 2003 for 2.5% shares (107.5 million) of OGDCL with a green shoe option of an additional 2.5% shares in case of over-subscription.

The meeting highly complemented the Privatisation Commission, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources and Oil & Gas Development Company Limited and other stakeholders on the unprecedented success of the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of OGDCL, which received overwhelming response from the general public and institutional investors. According to preliminary details received from the Lead Manager for the Transaction, KASB Securities, subscription may exceed the figure of Rs.20 billion which indicates over subscription to the extent of six times. Preference will be given to the smaller applicants for the minimum lot of 1000 shares for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 2.5 % shares (107.5 million shares).

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) also approved the highest bid offered by Star Cotton Corporation of Rs. 10.85 per share received for the sale of State Cement Corporation of Pakistan (SCCP)'s 90 % shares (71,797,050 shares) in Thatta Cement Company Limited (TCCL) here today.

The meeting was informed that 10 % shares of TCCL had been allocated for the employees and in case the employees did not opt for theses shares, then the successful buyer is bound to pick up these shares on the same price per share already offered by him for Rs. 86.5 million. In addition to this the successful buyer will pay about Rs 77.1 million as Golden Hand Shake/ V H Scheme and he will also pay a loan of Rs. 247. 6 million to SCCP. The payments to be made by the buyer for this transaction come to Rs. 1.19 billion.

The CCOP also expressed its satisfaction and appreciation regarding the third Public Offer of 13.1 million shares of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), which received applications worth Rs. 1.22 billion, which was double the required amount in response to its offer to the general public. Subscription for this issue was scheduled during October 13-15, 2003.

While reviewing the present status and the progress of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) privatisation, the meeting was informed that the potential bidders were in the process of completing their due diligence. A meeting was held with the potential bidders and the matters to take the transaction forward towards bidding point were discussed in detail. HBL is Pakistan's second largest commercial bank, having a countrywide and international branch network. HBL has full service licence covering commercial, retail banking, consumer and investment banking activities in Pakistan and most of the other countries where it is present. HBL has an extensive domestic network consisting of 1,425 branches with a market share of approx. 20%. The CCOP directed the PC to accelerate the process of HBL's privatisation.

Mr. Shaukat Aziz, Federal Minister for Finance chaired the meeting, while
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, the Federal Minister for Investment & Privatisation, Mr. Owais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Minister for IT & Telecom and senior officials of the Ministries/ Divisions concerned were present in the meeting.