ISLAMABAD, March 3: The Privatization Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said on Thursday the initial public offering of 20pc (176 million) shares of Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) received applications from 1.4 million people.

Addressing a press conference he said it was four and half time higher than the required applicants. This included 1.39 million applications from resident Pakistanis and 10,000 from overseas Pakistanis, he said.

He said the balloting for the successful applications would be held on March 4 in Karachi and a total of 3,16,000 small investors would be selected. The refund to the unsuccessful investors would be completed before March 14, 2005, he said.

The minister said the government would get Rs5.28bn proceeds from the Kapco transaction after exercising the green shoe options, while two per cent shares of 10pc IPO would be given each to the Kapco and Wapda employees.

He said the unprecedented participation in such a large number by the common citizen showed the general public was taking part in the 'privatization for the people'. This, he said, was also evident from continuous increase in the number of applicants, which stood at 97,000 in the case of OGDCL and increased to 243,000 in case of SSGCL, 750,000 in case of PPL and jumped to 1.4 million for Kapco.

He said the four IPOs attracted a total amount of Rs17bn, whose market value has appreciated to Rs67bn which meant the general public earned a profit of about Rs50 billion.