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The Secondary Public Offering (PO) of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)
shares and the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL)
shares should be completed by end April and May 2004. Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh
issued these instructions to the Privatisation Commission officials during a
meeting held here today under his chairmanship.
He said that the recent IPO of OGDCL had benefited the common man since the
shares offered at a price of Rs. 32/= per share had gone up by Rs. 61/=,
giving a benefit of about Rs. 6 billion to the smaller applicant. The
Government was committed to transfer the fruits of privatisation to the
general public and preference would be given to the smaller applicants in the
up coming Capital Market Transactions of PIA, PPL, to be followed by Kot Adu
Power Company (KAPCO) IPO, he said.
Dr. Hafeez Shaikh directed the PC officials not only to maintain the momentum
of the present pace of privatisation of public sector entities but also to
speed up the process in an aggressive manner. We might opt to limit 500 shares
for the smaller applicants for ensuring and transmitting the benefits of
privatisation to the large number of people in the Public Offering of PIA
sharers, he added.
The meeting reviewed the status of the privatisation process of Pakarab
Fertilizers Limited, Jamshoro Power Company, Faisalabad Electric Supply
Company, Peshawar Electric Supply Company, Sui Northern Gas Company, Sui
Southern Gas Company and other transactions.
The meeting expressed satisfaction over the transparent privatisation process
of Habib Bank Limited, IPO of OGDCL shares, the Secondary Public Offering of
SSGC shares, sale of Hyatt Regency Hotel a quarter century old transaction,
Associated Cement Rohri, Thatta Cement Company Limited etc which had set new
record in the history of Pakistan's Privatisation by generating Rs. 42 billion
during the past one year.
Earlier, while reviewing the performance of Board of Investment Dr. Abdul
Hafeez Shaikh directed the BOI officials to exceed the FDI target in the
coming year, which had shown an increase of 65 % this year. There exited vast
scope to facilitate the investors in Oil & Gas, Telecom, Banking and Textile
sectors, he said.
He said that the holding of Investment Conference at Hong Kong by the end of
the current month during the upcoming visit of the Prime Minister Mir
Zafarullah Khan Jamali to the East Asia, Investment Moot at Quetta on May 8,
2004 and Conference at London on May 12, 2004 would not only open new avenues
for the foreign and local investors but it would also accelerate the trade
development activity on fast track basis.