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Mr. M. Tahsin Khan Iqbal Secretary Privatisation Commission and Mr. Zamir
A. Choudrey Group Chief Executive of Bestway Cement Ltd signed a Share
Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the sale of Mustehkam Cement Limited here today.
The PC received a total bid amount of Rs.3. 204 billion from Bestway Cement
Ltd for the sale of 85.29 % shares (10,507,934 shares) of Mustehkam Cement
Limited (MCL) at the rate of Rs.305 per share. The bidding was held and
participated by the parties in September this year after depositing the
earnest money of Rs. 75 million each. The parties included 1.Bestway Cement
Ltd, 2. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd and 3. Three Stars Hosiery (Pvt) Ltd.
During the final open bidding round Three Star Hosiery Mills improved their
offer to Rs 260 per share with a total offer of Rs. 2.732 billion and Mapel
Leaf Cement Factory Ltd gave offer of Rs.300/- per share with a total of Rs.
3. 152 billion while Bestway Cement Ltd gave the highest offer of Rs.305/- per
share with a total of Rs.3. 204 billion. Incidentally, Bestway Group has been
actively investing in Pakistan in Cement and Financial Sector. The Group is
equal partner with Abu Dhabi Group in United Bank Limited (UBL), which has
since privatisation been making substantial progress and profit.
MCL is a public limited company listed on the stock exchange. The original
unit commenced its production in 1966, while the new unit started commercial
production in 1981. The company produced Portland cement. The plant is located
at Hattar, Haripur and has a rated capacity of 630,000 tons per annum. The
unit holds approx. 444 acres of land, while the factory area is approx. 146.3
acres. It was closed down in 1999 and employees were paid off GHS/VSS. The GoP
shall assume SCCP loans of Rs. 1,239. 534 million as on June 30, 2005.
Later, talking to the media men Mr. M. Tahsin Khan Iqbal Secretary PC informed
that the privatisation process of Karachi Electric Supply Company was now back
on track and Hassan Associate Consortium with Al-Jummaih Group of Saudi Arabia
has been asked to deposit US $ 100 million from the total bid amount of
Rs.20.2 billion (approx: US $ 350 million) before signing the Share
Purchase Agreement for KESC by November 14-16,2005 while remaining amount was
expected to be paid before the end of the current month and the management of
the company would be handed over to the successful consortium. Our target was
to maximise the revenues through the privatisation of public sector entities (PSE)
through a competitive, transparent and open process, which would ultimately
benefit the people of Pakistan, he stated and added that it was the first time
after the privatisation of UBL that the government received a dividend of
Rs.525 million for GoP's shares in the bank.
Mr. Zameer M. Choudrey Group CEO of Bestway (Holdings) Limited termed the
process of MCL privatisation fair and transparent and hoped that MCL
production would increase supply of cement in the country and it would also
help to stabilize the prices, which would benefit both consumers and the
private sector.