June 30, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1428

LONDON, June 29: By early afternoon on Friday, the UBL GDRs floated conditionally on Monday (June 25) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) at around $12.90 apiece were being quoted at $13.80.

Market watchers described it as a good beginning. But the volume at an average of 5,000 at each trading seemed rather sluggish.

Pakistan has already raised $650.3 million from the international equity market by selling to overseas investors 202 million shares of the United Bank Limited, accounting for 25 per cent of the bank’s total paid-up capital.

Sir Anwer Pervez and his Dubai-based business partner who had jointly bought 56pc of the UBL at the time of its privatisation have each bought on offer about 4.5pc of the GDRs, thus improving their total joint stake in the bank to 65pc.

Commenting on the early performance of the UBL GDRs on the LSE on the first day of official trading, Sir Pervez told Dawn that he expected the GDRs to do fairly well once the real players on the LSE get interested in them.

“At the moment, it is the broker (Merrill Lynch) who is managing the fluctuations as he probably holds the entire volume,” Sir Pervez said reiterating that the real worth of the GDRs would be known only when the broker starts offloading its holdings at a margin.

Other market watchers agreed with him and said that was the reason why even after six months of its listing on the LSE, the OGDC GDRs have rarely breached the band of $18-20.

“The brokers seem to be still holding the majority of OGDC GDRs and that is why the daily trading volume as well as the average prices have remained largely at the same level as they were when the GDRs were launched at the LSE,” observed these market watchers.

Sources said Pakistani financial institutions with a combined market value of $8bn are looking to come to London over the next 18 months. The others include the Habib Bank ($2bn), which is majority owned by the Aga Khan, National Bank of Pakistan ($2.4bn), and the Bank of Punjab, which is on the Karachi Stock Exchange ($256m).

Pakistan has launched an ambitious sell-off of state assets beginning with its Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) listing in London in December last year. Earlier, the MCB Bank had mobilised about $150 million by floating a small portion of its shares at the London bourse.

Pakistan is also planning the international listing of the Kot Addu Power Company, a sell-off of stakes in the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC), and the Pakistan State Oil Company.

The companies from India and Pakistan are increasingly targeting London’s investors, following the trail blazed by Russian and Kazakhstan companies in recent years. It further underlines the capital’s importance as a centre for global finance.