May 01, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 30: The reconstituted Board of the Privatisation Commission has given green signal for the appointment of financial adviser (FA) for the divestment of Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) shares through offering of Global Depository Receipts (GDR) in the international market.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the PC board presided over by Federal Minister for Privatisation Syed Naveed Qamar, here on Wednesday.

Kapco engages in the ownership, operation, and maintenance of the multi-fuel fired power station. It produces and sells electrical energy from its power station with about 15 generating units with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts in Kot Addu, district Muzaffargarh, Punjab. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is based in Lahore.

Earlier, the PC had constituted an inter-ministerial committee to evaluate GDR offering of Kapco’s shares.

According to the Shareholders’ Agreement between the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and the National Power (Kot Addu) Ltd (NPKAL), which acquired Kapco on its privatisation, a waiver of the first right of offer had to be obtained from NPKAL before Wapda’s shareholding in the company could be divested.

The NPKAL had refused to waive its right of first offer unless it was allowed to unconditionally dematerialise its shares comprising 26 per cent of Kapco equity. Wapda opposed the unconditional dematerialisation of NPKAL’s shares, which considerably delayed the proposed divestment.

The board has now also decided to initiate the process for the appointment of the financial adviser for the block sale of Habib Bank Ltd shares.

The board also approved the recommendations of the prequalification committee for the prequalification of bidders for Hazara Phosphate and Fertilisers Ltd with instructions to ensure maximum participation of potential bidders.

The PC board was briefed on the process of the privatisation of various ongoing transactions. The meeting also reviewed the implementation status of the decision of the PC board.

Earlier, Naveed Qamar urged the newly-constituted board to ensure that the whole process of privatisation should be transparent and target-oriented.