ISLAMABAD, April 2: The Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) which met here on Friday under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, approved the inclusion of Initial Public Offering (IPO) of GoP's shareholding in Kot Adu Power Company (KAPCO) in the privatization programme.

According to a handout issued here the CCoP noted with appreciation the success and commended the results of the secondary public offering of Sui Southern Gas Company shares, which had set new record as regard to the over subscription.

Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh while briefing the CCoP on the public offering of 5 per cent shares of SSGC said that the response from the applicants for 1,000 shares remained all-time high to the tune of 258,089 applications worth Rs13 billion, which was 15 times oversubscribed after the OGDC IPO and it has also confirmed the confidence reposed in the economic policies of the government by general public. After exercising the green-shoe option for another 5 per cent shares to accommodate maximum number of smaller applicants, the government had realized an amount of Rs1.74 billion for total 10 per cent shares, he said.

The balloting for SSGC shares to determine the successful applicants was held among the applicants of 1,000 shares declaring 67,117 applicants successful. Keeping in view the ever-highest number of applicants for 1,000 shares, balloting was restricted to only this category of applicants with a focused approach of the government to pass on the benefits of privatization to the general public, especially the small investors, and to broaden, strengthen and deepen the base of the stock market, he added.

The meeting also gave go ahead for the privatization of Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP), Haripur and Career Telephone Industries (CTI), Islamabad.

Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunications Owais Ahmed Khan Leghari, chairman BoI, Deputy Chief Planning Commission, the federal secretaries of the respective ministries, senior officials of Finance Division, Privatization Commission, Board of Investment and Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan attended the meeting.