August 30, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-us-Saani 20, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Growing confusion and uncertainty about the UBL privatisation was removed on Thursday when the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) decided to invite all three prequalified bidders here on Monday to offer their fresh bids and the highest bidder will be issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) on the spot.

“There is going to be Rs 12.3 billion floor price for seeking government’s majority shares in the United Bank Limited (UBL) and the minimum jump will be of Rs 50 million to increase the bid and this is how the highest bidder will be issued LoI at the spot,” Minister for Privatisation Altaf M. Saleem said.

Talking to Dawn after the CCOP meeting, he said a benchmark price of Rs 12.3 billion has been decided on the basis of which LoI will be issued to the highest bidder.

Answering a question he said since all the three parties had been cleared by the State Bank, there was no need to seek any fresh query from them.

He said unless there was any logistic problem to any bidder, the UBL transaction will be finalised on Monday next.

Earlier, the Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) group had offered the highest bid of Rs 12 billion followed by Abu Dhabi and Bestway Consortium and Union Bank group who submitted their Rs 4.8 billion and Rs 4.5 billion, respectively. Later, the issue remained with the State Bank for quite some time.

Mr Altaf Saleem, who is also the chairman of Privatisation Commission, said there was also no need to seek any revised funding plan from any party.

To a question he said the MCB group has given assured that it was ready to meet any financial shortfall if asked by the central bank. They have also assured that it would not use the depositors money to buy 51 per cent majority shares of the UBL.

The UBL is a major transaction in the financial sector, to be followed by the privatisation of Habib Bank Limited (HBL), National Bank of Pakistan and other Financial Development Institutions (FDIs) including the National Investment Trust(NIT).