December 4, 2001	Tuesday	Ramazan 18, 1422

ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: Three international companies will be pre-qualified on December 8 to disinvest 51 per cent shares of the United Bank Ltd (UBL) along with transfer of management in the first quarter of 2002.

“After December 8 we will do the due diligence of the three companies so that their bidding could take place in February and deal finalized by March next year,” said Minister for Privatization Altaf M. Saleem.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday, he said that out of ten parties, Union Bank, a foreign consortium that also includes Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) and an Abu Dhabi based company having joint venture with Best Way Cement had been pre-qualified to take part in the bidding of the UBL.

The UBL transactions, he said, would give a big boost to disinvestment of state enterprises during the next few months.

About Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), he said, that five Expressions of Interest (EOIs) had been received by the Privatization Commission. “And now we are hoping to have two more competitors for which the government has been approached,” he said adding that the December 8 meeting would also decide about this issue so that some more people were provided an opportunity to take part in the privatization of the PTCL.

In reply to a question, the minister said that Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation (KESC) would be brought in the market for privatization in April next year. “We will get an approval from the federal cabinet within this month to disinvest KESC in 2002.”

However, he said, the government would introduce new law that would allow the new buyer of the KESC to recover dues from the government agencies and hospitals without much hassle. “Here too new package will be approved by the cabinet so that no future buyer could face financial problems,” he said adding that the new buyer was expected to inject 300 to 400 million dollars in the company to make it financially viable. The recovery of dues of the KESC was one of the major problems that needed to be settled urgently so that people could opt for it, he said.

He said that Pricewaterhouse Cooper — the financial adviser of the KESC — had been appointed jointly by the Privatization Commission and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to finalize the deal.

The minister for privatization said that KESC was almost 99 per cent government-owned company whose most of the debt had been converted into equity. He said a modernization and upgradation plan for the KESC was under way with the financial help of the ADB.

He also said that the government was also planning to change the law so that future buyer of the KESC should share its profits with the consumers. “We will prescribe certain limit of profit and if that limit is crossed, the new buyer will have to offer certain percentage of this profit to the electricity consumers,” he said. The issue, he said, would be decided with the active support of the National Electricity Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).

Altaf Saleem said that because of September 11 events, the privatization of PTCL, government’s shareholding in nine oil wells and Saudi Pak Fertilizer could not be carried out on schedule in November/ December this year.

He said that most of the foreign buyers had approached the government with the request that since they could not travel to Pakistan under these circumstances, therefore, major transactions should be delayed for some time. “But these three transactions will be ready in the first quarter of 2002,” he assured.

Responding to a question he said that response of the public was very good in buying shares of the National Bank of Pakistan. “We have received Rs900 million against the requirement of Rs18.5 million and as such we received 500 million more and this shows that markets sentiments are good for the privatization of state sector including banks,” the minister for privatization said.

“We are encouraged and now we plan to sell some of the shares of other banks through stock exchanges,” he said adding that the federal cabinet would shortly give approval for selling shares of the nationalized commercial banks through stock exchanges.

He said that Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and the Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) would be privatized in May and August next year respectively.