CDC COMPLETES OGDCL SHARES CREDIT IN RESPECTIVE CDS ACCOUNTS

Islamabad, January 21, 2004

The Lead Manager to OGDCL IPO, KASB Securities has confirmed to the Privatisation Commission that the Balloter to the offer and OGDCL shares Registrar M/s Noble Computer Services (Pvt) Ltd (NCSL) has completed the process of crediting OGDCL shares in the Central Depository Company (CDC) in the respective Central Depository System (CDS) accounts of applicants.

However, NCSL has identified a number of cases where shares were not credited to the respective CDC accounts of the applicants despite the correct account information being stated on their application forms. Such cases included but are not limited to joint CDC account holders where one applicant (of a joint CDC account) received credit whilst the remaining applicants of the same joint account did not. In order to facilitate such cases, the CDC has credited the allotted shares through a second upload process.

OGDCL shares will be issued in physical form to all such applicants where non compliance with CDC Regulation 8.B.1 (iii) was found in the respective CDS Account information (i.e. discrepancies found between CDC account information provided in the application form and the information already held by the CDC). All such applicants will shortly be receiving a letter from NCSL informing them of the process through which they may receive/collect their allotted physical shares on payment of PKR 0.14 per share. The applicants will have to send a pay order / demand draft of the required amount to the NCSL. Upon receipt and clearance of the payments, commencing January 30, 2004, the physical shares will be dispatched directly to the addresses of the applicants. Alternately, the applicants may collect them from the offices of NCSL after February 9, 2004 (Monday-Friday 10 am to 1 pm.)

The applicants who applied for physical shares through Banks to the offer can obtain them from the same branches of the banks, which have already been delivered to them since January 9, 2004.

The applications, which have been identified as multiple or fictitious have been forwarded to the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan for their consideration. Furthermore, details of these applicants have also been sent to the respective Bankers to the offer and the Stock Exchanges.

The historic success of the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of 2.5 % shares of  OGDCL (107.5 million shares) had received overwhelming response from the  general public and institutional investors and it was heavily over  subscribed. The government has exercised the green shoe option for additional offer of 2.5 % shares of OGDCL due to the substantial and record subscription in the issue. 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. 28 billion. 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 the IPO of KAPCO and PPL would soon be offered, while from February 9 to 11, 2004 the Public Offer of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) shares would be made.

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.