December 12, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 20, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The Privatisation Commission on Monday announced that Citigroup, Goldman Sachs International and BMA Capital had exercised the Over-allotment option over 53,294,000 ordinary OGDCL shares in the form of GDS. This completes the final element of the institutional offering.

Including the over-allotment option and the retail offering, gross proceeds of the offer are expected to amount to Rs49,353 million ($811 million).

BMA Capital, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs International are joint lead managers with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs International acting as joint global co-ordinators and book runners for the international offering and BMA Capital as lead manager and book runner for the domestic offering and joint lead manager of the international offering.

The retail offer of 21,505,000 shares to investors in Pakistan at a price of Rs110 per share will commence in December and is expected to be completed within a few weeks thereafter; the retail offer price represents an effective discount of almost 3 per cent to the institutional offer price after adjusting for the company’s announced first quarter dividend payment of Rs1.75 per share that is not available to participants in the retail offering.

Commenting on the successful exercising of the over-allotment option, Minister for Privatisation and Investment Zahid Hamid said: "The exercising of the over-allotment in full completes this landmark institutional offering of the OGDCL shares.

The additional shares sold have raised a further $100 million that will, in accordance with the law, be used to pay off the national debt and for poverty alleviation.

Once the retail offer has been completed, the total proceeds of the transaction will amount to $811 million, making this the highest transaction by any Pakistani company in the last decade. “This offering has been very encouraging and is a strong signal of confidence by foreign investors in today’s Pakistan," he added.