FAISALABAD, Jan 29: The Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company privatization process is at its final stages and the four shortlisted bidders will visit Fesco's offices on Feb 10 , along with the consultants and officials of the Privatization Commission of Pakistan.

An official source told Dawn here on Thursday that the company's shares had been calculated over Rs50 billion with share value of Rs10 each while its total assets had provisionally been worked out to be Rs12.297 billion, including buildings, installations, machinery and vehicles.

The parties which had been shortlisted for Fesco's sell-out by the PCP are Crescent Groups, Polyground of Industries, United Bank Limited and Fauji Foundation.

Sources further claimed that Fesco was a registered private company under the corporate law, and it had seven directors in its fold, out of which four were from Wapda and the remaining from private sector.

The private directors - Asghar Qureshi of Crescent Group, Rashid Ali Khan of Rafhan Group and Fauji Fertilizers general manager - have no financial stake in the company and have just one share of Rs10 each. The Fesco chief executive officer, a serving brigadier, has been inducted by Wapda.

The source further said although Fesco was a limited company, its affairs were being run and supervised directly by Wapda. It also didn't have its independent rules for employment, removal from service and other disciplinary actions.

Similarly, they said, it was also unable to decide its power tariff as the same was being done by Wapda on the instructions and decision of Nepra. Fesco, they claimed, had sustained a loss of Rs399 million in 2002-2003 fiscal year while the account books for the current fiscal year were still operative and would be closed by June 30 this year.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE: Fesco Chief Executive Brigadier Tariq Rasool has claimed that a five-year master plan has been chalked out for providing modern services to its consumers, setting up of customer service centres, provision of new power connections and reduction in line losses.