PC RECEIVES SIX EOI FOR APPOINTMENT OF FA FOR PRIVATISATION OF SME BANK LIMITED

Islamabad, March 1, 2007

The Privatisation Commission has received six Expression of Interest (EOI)s from interested parties to act as Financial Advisor for Privatisation of SME Bank Ltd.

The parties include 1. BMA Capital, 2. IGI Investment Bank, 3. AMZ Securities, 4. Arif Habib Limited, 5. Abacus Consulting and 6. Grant Thornton, Anjum, Asim, Shahid Rahman.

SME Bank Ltd. is a Scheduled Commercial Bank engaged with the business of banking with the objective of supporting and developing a small and medium enterprises sector in Pakistan by providing necessary financial assistance and its business support services on sustainable basis. SME Bank Ltd. was granted its Business Commencement Certificate on April 16,2005 which became effective from the date of its issue. The bank is operating through a network of 27 branches including 13 Commercial banking branches.

These interested parties will be provided with the Request for Proposal (RFP) package including a Letter of Invitation (LOI), Terms of Reference (TORs), transaction profile and other relevant information / instructions on the submission of technical and financial proposals for their pre-qualification.