ISLAMABAD, March 11: The Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz here on Saturday approved takeover of management control of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) by the UAE telecom Etisalat.

A signing ceremony of an agreement in this regard would take place at the PM House on Sunday after which Etisalat would take control of PTCL management from next week, official sources told Dawn.

The committee also approved the highest bid of Rs19.99 billion by Ibrahim Fibres Ltd for the sale of Pak American Fertilizer Ltd. It was also decided that the Privatization Commission (PC) would sell out the site of Services International Hotel, Upper Mall, Lahore, for construction of a five-star hotel on fast track basis.

The CCoP approved a proposal of the PC for the payment of outstanding dues of those employees of the Pak Saudi Fertilizers Ltd, who had opted for Golden Hand Shake but there dues were still outstanding.

The committee was informed that major transactions including that of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL), National Investment Trust (NIT) and Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC) would take place during the next three months. The secondary public offering of UBL shares and Global Depository Receipts (GDR) of Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) would be completed by the end of this June.

It is to mention here that a couple of weeks back the government and Etisalat had reached an agreement on all the modalities and procedures for transfer of the PTCL management to the UAE company.

On January 6, the CCoP had approved a deal for the sale of PTCL by slightly amending the structure of the transaction that made Etisalat to complete payments by 2010.

As per the revised agreement Etisalat would pay $1.14 billion immediately to take the management control. It has already paid $260 million (10 per cent of the total amount).

The committee also allowed Etisalat to pay the remaining $1.2 billion in total nine instalments of $133 million. A period of six months has been set for each instalment.

The instalment structure will be fully backed by the corporate guarantee to be furnished by Etisalat.

The CCoP had also approved offloading of up to 25 per cent of “Class A” shares of PTCL in several tranches through competitive bidding over the next five years as proposed by the PC.

Etisalat would also be offered to acquire those shares through a right to match the highest bid.

The minimum price of the Government of Pakistan’s shares is always decided by the CCoP. The government would decide about the timing and size of the tranche of “Class A” shares to be offloaded in the light of market condition, the committee had decided.