ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: The Privatisation Commission (PC) has described as ridiculous the allegation that the sale of the PTCL cause the exchequer at a “loss of $394 million”. A PC spokesman said the allegation levelled by PML-N secretary-general Ahsan Iqbal was a repetition of a news report which had already been denied.

The facts were that the bid submitted by the consortium, led by Etisalat (EIP), of $1.96 per share equivalent to Rs117.01 per share (total $2.599 billion for 26 per cent shares) was much higher than the prevalent market price of Rs42 to Rs45 per share and the approved reference price of Rs62 per share approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP).

The China Mobile’s bid was $1.06 per share equivalent to Rs63.48 per share (total $1.410 billion) and Singtel’s bid was $0.88 per share equivalent to Rs 52.54 per share (total $1.167 billion) for the 26 per cent strategic stake. Hence the Etisalt bid was more than the combined bids of China Mobile and Singtel, he said.

The spokesman stated that the details of the revised terms and conditions agreed with Etisalat were made available after CCOP’s approval in April 2006. The present allegations were clearly malafide attempts to create fresh controversies out of perfectly correct past and closed transactions.

The spokesman also pointed out that the published gazette clearly mentioned that the terms of the sale including the revised terms were equally available to all three qualified bidders to ensure transparency. However, Singtel and China Mobile declined to participate further in the bidding process, he claimed.

He said that given the wide gap between the bids received and the disinterest shown by other qualified bidders, continuation of dialogue with EIP was in the best national interest.