LEAD MANAGER FOR OGDCL IPO KASB GROUP TO CELEBRATE THE SUCCESS & INDUCTION IN KSE 100 INDEX

Islamabad, April 14, 2004

The historic success of the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of 2.5 % shares of OGDCL (107.5 million shares), which had received overwhelming response from the general public and institutional investors and was heavily over subscribed and its induction in the KSE 100 Index is being celebrated in a ceremony being held under the auspices of the Lead Manager to the offer KASB Group at Islamabad on April 16, 2004. Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment and Chaudhary Nouraiz Shakoor, Federal Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources will be the Chief Guests.

The government exercised the green shoe option for additional offer of 2.5 % shares of OGDCL due to the substantial and record subscription in the issue. The offer had been oversubscribed by more than seven times attracting an amount of more than Rs. 28 billion due to heavy support from both, individual as well as institutional investors. 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.

The formal listing of OGDCL shares on the Stock Market from January 19, 2004 has increased market capitalization by more than Rs. 220 billion, which translates to about US$ 3.8 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 listing of OGDCL is 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. It is 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 and Secondary Public Offering of SSGC shares, the IPO of PPL and KAPCO and Public Offering of PIAC shares will soon be offered.

Overall, the listing and offer for sale of OGDCL has been a landmark transaction for the capital markets. 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.

As per final figures received from the Bankers to the Offer, a total of 97,570 applications were received from the general public amounting to PKR 28,120,780,585. All applications have been accommodated initially for 1,000 shares each and the balance of shares have been allotted on a pro-rata basis to all applicants who applied for shares in multiples of 1,000 shares.