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ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation on Monday approved disinvestment of 10 per cent government shares in the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) through capital market.
The recommended capital market transaction structure envisages offering shares to institutional international and domestic investors through a combined international book building process.
International investors will get an option to buy either ordinary shares or GDRs or both.
Know more: OGDCL earns record Rs124bn in FY14
The offering to international investors will be done through an offering circular, fully compliant to the US Securities Act 1933.
After completion of book building process, a domestic public offering for general public and employees of the company will be carried out using the subscription method.
The offering to domestic investors will be done through an ‘offer for sale’ document, to be approved by the domestic stock exchanges and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
The board of Privatisation Commission at its meeting in April this year had approved appointment of a consortium, comprising Merrill Lynch International, Citigroup and KASB Bank to act as financial adviser for the OGDCL transaction.
Chairing the CCOP meeting, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that “unusual circumstances” had delayed the transaction for almost three weeks but the government is trying to make up for the loss of time, money and international standing in the shortest possible time.
“One feels pained that the hard work done by our government in the last 14 months is threatened by the reckless behaviour of certain people. If things had not been so as they are for the last one month, I am sure that we would have saved the hassle of arranging road shows for such a profitable investment opportunity,” Mr Dar said.
Omar Iqtidar, Management Director of Citibank, in his presentation to the CCOP, said that they have planned a 21-day execution window for the completion of this transaction.
The international market road shows will be held in Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, Frankfurt, Stockholm, London, New York, Boston and Chicago.
Federal Ministers Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Ahsan Iqbal, and Abbas Khan Afridi, Chairman, Privatisation Commission, Mohammad Zubair, SECP Chairman Tahir Mehmood and federal secretaries attended the meeting.
Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014
