ISLAMABAD, April 23: The privatisation commission holds first round of a pre-bid conference for sale of management rights in the National Investment Trust here on Tuesday and about 14 parties are expected to participate, said privatisation minister Zahid Hamid.

He told Dawn that interested parties would be briefed about the salient features of the transaction structure, the entire process and given a response to questions and objections, if any, by the contesting parties about the transaction.

He said the companies would be pre-qualified after the pre-bid conference on Tuesday. This event will lead to finalisation of the bidding date.

The government plans to sell management control of the NIT. This is an open-end mutual fund that falls under the category of investment intermediaries, comprising a group of institutions whose primary purpose is to provide portfolio management services to individual and institutional investors.

NITL was incorporated as an unquoted public limited company in 1962. The principal activity of the company is to manage NI(U)T, an open-end mutual fund. The fund is the largest open- end mutual fund in Pakistan, with investments in approximately 430 of the 662 listed Pakistani companies, as on Sept 30, 2005. NIT's port folio has over 96 per cent per cent correlation with the Karachi Stock Exchange All Share Index and is as such the nearest proxy to an Index Fund in Pakistan.

Value of net funds under management are approximately Rs61 billion. The fund has a 97 per cent weighting in equities and three per cent weighting in fixed income securities.

NITL’s objective is to provide its unit-holders with a balance between their regular income needs and long-term capital appreciation. NITL has approximately 53,000 unit-holders and 19 branches across Pakistan.

The fund has significant strategic holdings in some of Pakistan's best managed companies and in major privatisation transactions e.g. Pakistan State Oil, Sui Northern, Sui Southern, Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Pakistan Tele-Communications Limited, National Refinery Limited etc. These companies comprise the backbone of Pakistan's economy.

The government presently owns 8.33 per cent of NITL's shares directly and 33.3 per cent shares indirectly through government controlled entities. An 8.33 per cent shareholding is owned by each UBL, HBL, PICIC and MCB, while 25 per cent of NITL shares are held by three industrialists in equal proportions.