PPL SHARES DELIVERED TO SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS

Islamabad, September 15, 2004

The Privatisation Commission has announced that the physical shares certificates of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) along with the transfer deeds have been delivered to the bankers to the offer. Applicants have been asked to collect their shares from the bank/ branch through which they tendered their application. The Central Depository Company of Pakistan (CDC) has also credited the shares to those applicants who opted to receive shares in their accounts in Central Depository System. For signature verification and transfer of shares the successful applicants should contact Share  Registrar for PPL Ferguson Associates (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi on phone:  021-2423650-2424380 Fax: 021-2427938.

The Privatisation Commission received a record number of 7,55,000 applications from the smaller applicants for 500 shares. The computer balloting selected 205,750 successful applicants on August 4, 2004 at Karachi.

The IPO of PPL shares was opened from July 19 to July 22, 2004 for four days at the Government's offer price of Rs.55/= per share. PC held road shows in all the major cities of the country including Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar to inform the general public and the investors regarding the procedure to apply, the worth of PPL and the risks involved. Lead Manger to the transaction was Elixir Securities Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd.

PPL is the fifth company after NBP, OGDCL, SSGC and PIAC whose shares were  offered to the general public through the Capital Market. It is one of the  large companies in the oil & gas exploration and production sector and is the owner of the Sui Gas fields.

The government had approved the divestment of PPL shares through an Offer for Sale of 10% (68.58 million) of the company's issued shares to the general public with a green shoe option of additional 5% shares in case of over subscription. Applications were invited in multiples of 500 shares. In line with the government's objective of 'Privatisation for the People', preference in allocation has been given to the smallest applicants for 500 shares for a total investment of Rs.27, 500/=. Whereas it directly benefited the small investors and also helped in broadening the shareholder base and lend additional strength to the market. The listing of PPL has added significantly to market capitalization. It is expected that PPL would become one of the highly traded stocks in the stock markets.