April 4, 2003	Friday	Safar 1, 1424

ISLAMABAD, April 3: The Privatization Commission has received expressions of interest (EoIs) from eight parties to secure the management control of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO).

Any qualified strategic investor will be entitled to acquire 56 per cent shares of the company, says a handout issued here on Thursday by the Privatization Commission. The last date for receiving the EoIs was March 31, 2003.

The parties/consortia, which have submitted EoIs, include the Al-bario Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, the Crescent Business Management (Pvt) Ltd, the Fauji Foundation, the Ibrahim Agencies (Pvt) Ltd, the ICC (Pvt) Ltd, the Nishat (Chunian) Limited, the Rupali Polyester Limited and the United Bank Limited.

FESCO is one of the electricity distribution companies created from the unbundling of the power wing of Wapda. The company incorporated in 1998 as public limited company serves approximately 1.8 million consumers of various categories spread over the central Punjab region.

Divestiture of various power sector generation and distribution assets to allow activities to be undertaken by the private sector; improvement in the efficiency of the Pakistan power sector through competition, accountability, managerial autonomy and profit incentives; and the generation of required resources through the privatization process are the objectives of the government for the privatization of power sector, the handout said.