WORLD TOP INVESTMENT GROUPS KEEN IN ISSUANCE OF CONVERTIBLE/ EXCHANGEABLE BONDS FOR PAK SOEs
 

Islamabad, July 13, 2010

The World’s top investment and financial groups including HSBC, NOMURA UK and London Stock Exchange have showed keen interest in the current plans of the Pakistan’s Privatisation Commission for the issuance of Equity Linked Instruments i.e Convertible and Exchangeable Bonds for State Owned Entities and pursuing privatisation process under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Mode. The senior officials from HSBC, NOMURA, London Stock Exchange and major financial institutions in London expressed it during meetings with the Federal Minister for Privatisation Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan, says a message received from UK here today.

During the meetings, senior banking officials apprised the Minister on the current global economic & financial environment and discussed various options for increasing foreign investment in Pakistan and termed that frontier markets like Pakistan were the key to future global growth and current market conditions were opportune for foreign investment in Pakistan.

Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan Federal Minister for Privatisation who is currently on a visit to UK informed the groups that the current SOE restructuring plan being pursued by the Privatisation Commission of Pakistan would further improve the current overall economic environment and would turnaround the loss making entities into profitable ones. This restructuring plan involved for generating capital via equity linked instruments and efficient utilization of proceeds for organizational restructuring of the transactions on the Privatisation agenda, he added.

The Minister further said that the strong and visionary political leadership has made the economic environment in Pakistan more conducive for investment through consistency and continuity of investment friendly policies. The international community could play vital role in promoting foreign investment in Pakistan, which would help alleviate fiscal pressures on the GoP created by the war on terror, he said.

Lauding the visionary leadership and the analytical skills of the Minister, the officials from the London Stock Exchange Chief Executive Mr. Xavier Rolet invited him as a ‘key note’ speaker at the London Stock Exchange premises. Political harmony between Pakistan and the World was essential for progress and proposed visits of leading teams from their institutions to Pakistan in order to meet key stakeholders in the country so as to take a step forward and indulge in profitable investments in the country, the officials opined.