LAHORE, July 14: Federal Minister for Privatization and Investment Dr. Abdul Hafeez on Wednesday said that the decision on the privatization of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) would be made very soon.
"The new management of the company had been given a three-month period to work out the modalities for the privatization of PTCL; now the time is about to over," he said while speaking at the fourth roadshow of Pakistan Petroleum Limited's Initial Public Offer (IPO) at a local hotel on Wednesday.
He said that the PTCL's sell-off had been under consideration for the last one decade. The situation had changed significantly in the world telecom sector, he added. He said that there were two ways to carry out the privatization of the PTCL - either sell-out the entire entity or unbundle it before its privatization.
Talking about the process of privatization in the country, he said that it had been accelerated lately. "The entire proceeds during first 10 years of privatization process stood at Rs60 billion.
However, the amount raised during the three years of Pervez Musharraf government and then during the 19 months of the elected government stood at Rs36 billion and Rs43 billion respectively," Mr Hafeez said.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that the process of the privatization not only helped in lending more depth to country's stock market but also ensured the share of common man in the ownership of state-owned enterprises.
He said that about 97,000 persons took part in the initial public offer (IPO) of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited while the number of Pakistanis availing the investment opportunity in the IPO of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) stood at 67,000.
He hoped that over 200,000 people would benefit from the PPL's initial public offering. The minister said that the privatization had also helped revive the state-owned dead assets. The sell-out of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and United Bank Limited (UBL) were the quotable examples in this regard.
He said that the UBL was able to give dividend to the government for the first time this year in a period of quarter century, just due to healthy effects of privatization.
He hoped that the privatization of Thatta Cement, Rohri Cement and Faletti's Hotel would yield similar positive results. He said that the shares of more companies from oil and gas sector, electricity, fertilizer and financial sector would soon be floated in the stock market.
Dr Hafeez said that the intervention of the government in the affairs of the state-owned enterprises had decreased significantly. Responding to a question about the status of Pakistan State Oil Company Limited's privatization, he said that it would be fair to say anything about it only after the things got more mature.
Later, talking to newsmen, the minister said that some 141 state-owned enterprises had been privatized over the last 15 years. However, he said, this list of privatized institutions included a small number of big organizations.
He said that the units like Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), National Investment Trust (NIT) and Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO) would be offered for sell-out in near future.
"Even if we succeed two or three of these big enterprises during next six months, it will be an achievement," he said. He said that privatization process should continue while pursuing the blend of all of its modes. Earlier, Managing Director PPL, Munsif Raza and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Central Depository Committee (CDC), M. Hanif Jakhura also spoke on the occasion. -APP
