KARACHI: The divestment committee of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) waited to collect bids for the sale of a 40pc stake in bourse till after midnight on Thursday. While the negotiations with the bidders was being carried out by the divestment committee, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was also at hand, along with his team and the board of directors of the PSX. Yet nothing transpired till 1o’clock in the morning.

On Thursday when the doors were thrown open for submission of sealed bids for the acquisition of 40 per cent strategic stake in the Pakistan bourse, the first bid trickled down by early afternoon.

According to informed sources, six contestants had put in a bid, which included Foreign Consortiums of Stock Exchanges and institutions, and local banks and financial institutions. The word doing the round was that among the bidders were Markhor 40pc, NASDEQ, DCE Capital, Kingsway Capital, Blibros Capital 30pc while MCB-Faysal Bank was competing for a combined 10pc and NBP & MCB vied for 5pc shares each.

The information regarding the bidders could not however be independently verified. According to regulations, local institutions and individuals cannot bid for more than five percent of the shares.

The committee had earlier declined to disclose the lowest benchmark at which the transaction would be allowed to transpire and analysts estimates the price at which the deal could be struck to be in a wide band between $140 million and $225m.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2016