ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Kot Adu Power Company (Kapco), which remained opened for four days, will raise the number of beneficiaries, the common citizens of Pakistan, from 450,000 to 750,000.

Federal Minister for Privatization and Investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh stated this while talking to media after the signing ceremony of the Conveyance Deeds, Share Purchase Agreement of Faletti's Hotel here on Thursday, says a hand out.

The minister said that as per initial reports the response to Kapco offer would prove to be unprecedented, which would benefit around 316,000 small applicants. The government would continue the divestment of GoP shares in the public sector entities to benefit small applicants with proper sequencing and interim of eight to ten weeks, which included IPO of State Life Insurance Company (SLIC), United Bank Limited (UBL) and secondary public offering of OGDC, he said.

He termed the completion of the privatization process of Faletti's Hotel as an encouraging development, which would give boost to tourism industry with the construction of a world-class quality hotel.

This transaction augurs well for future investments in the hospitality/tourism industry. Furthermore, this successful transaction was symbolic of the fact that investor's perceptions about Pakistan have improved significantly, he added.

The representative of the buyer Mr Javed Qureshi said that the completion of transaction reflected the confidence of the private sector in the economic policies of the government and lauded the transparency maintained by the Privatization Commission during the process.

The design work has been assigned to a foreign company for building Pakistan's biggest hotel project and ground breaking ceremony was expected to take place before June 30 this year, he said. Earlier, the new owner signed sale agreement with AHP and the representative of LDA and the Revenue department of Government of Punjab.