ISLAMABAD, June 21: The Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) on Tuesday appointed a consortium led by Citigroup to act as financial advisers to prepare the transaction and hold international competitive bidding (ICB) for 1,400-mw thermal power stations in the country.

The plants will be located at Uch, Faisalabad and Lahore and will be based on dual-fired (gas and oil) fuel. The cost of three projects is estimated at $1 billion and investment will be made by the private sector, sources said.

The Citigroup-led consortium comprised British legal firm, Linklaters, technical firm, Stone and Webster Management Consultant, and local legal firm, Haider Mota and Company, and will be paid an amount of $4.6 million. The financial advisers are required to complete the transaction in 18 months.

Other competitors included ABN Amro Bank (financial advisers) Stone and Webster Management Consultants (technical advisers) and Ashurst (legal advisers) and KASB/Lexicon Partners (financial advisers) MottMacDonald (technical advisers), and Norton Rose (legal advisers).

The three consortia of advisers gave detailed presentations and plans to a five-member committee a week ago, which recommended that the Citigroup was the best to prepare three thermal power projects for the international competitive bidding.

Renowned international investment banks and advisory firms were invited to submit their proposals as financial advisers for the three projects. Based on the pre-defined evaluation criteria, the Citigroup was ranked highest among the received proposals, an official statement said.

The PPIB board met here on Tuesday with Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi in the chair.

The board allowed one month extension to the Habibullah Group to submit a bank guarantee for setting up a plant at Thar. The company had sought two months extension for the bank guarantee. The board, however, refused to accept the group’s request seeking government’s guarantee for supply of coal for the project without any interruption.

The board was of the opinion that since the government was not taking any responsibility for the coal supply and the company itself and its partners were actually the coal suppliers, they would themselves be responsible for the coal supply. The board said that sponsor and supplier was the same group, therefore, there was no question of government guarantees.

The PPIB board also discussed and emphasized the streamlining of procedures, both at federal and provincial levels, to provide facilities to investors for the development of coal-based power projects.