ISLAMABAD, May 12: The Privatization Commission on Wednesday announced the schedule for the bidding of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. The bidding will be held on June 10 for 26 per cent shares of PTCL with management control as a wholly integrated telecom operator.

An investors’ forum is also scheduled for May 25 to respond to the queries of potential bidders and to inform them about the bidding process, says a handout issued here. The Privatization Commission has received requests from several bidders to extend the bidding date. The bidders say they need more time to go through their internal approval process prior to the bidding. The Privatization Commission has, therefore, issued the new timetable after taking cognizance of the legitimate requests from the bidders for an extension.

PTCL is a leading provider of basic telephone services to the private sector in Pakistan with over 4.4 million telephone lines in service. Besides providing fixed line and ancillary services, PTCL owns Pakistan Telecommunication Mobile Limited, one of five GSM cellular providers in Pakistan, and Paknet, a countrywide internet service provider.

Its strong financial position demonstrated during FY2004, excluding subsidiaries as per unconsolidated financial of PTCL indicates: Revenue Rs74,124m; operating profit Rs41,938 million; net profit after tax Rs29,169 million; total assets Rs141,595m; and total equity Rs83,600 million, with a network of installed 5.27 million lines and 4.43 million access lines in service.