ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: The Privatization Commission Board was informed here on Saturday that the lingering issue of privatizing United Bank Ltd will definitely be decided within the next two weeks.

Informed sources said the board meeting, presided over by Privatization Minister Altaf M. Saleem, was taken into confidence about the delay that was occurring to finalize the much awaited UBL deal.

But Mr Saleem assured the meeting that the sanctity of the privatization process for UBL will be maintained along with ensuring maximization of the transaction.

The sources said the State Bank had eventually evaluated the new funding plan submitted by the MCB group to acquire 51 per cent shares of UBL. However, the central bank has asked the Privatization Commission through a letter to further clarify some issues from the MCB group, including the capital adequacy.

“There will be a merger of MCB and UBL if Mian Mansha group’s Rs12 billion bid is accepted and as such this issue requires serious due diligence,” a source in the Ministry of Finance said.

The Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) is expected to meet next week where the officials of the Privatization Commission will brief the participants about the latest situation regarding the UBL privatization.

“From our point of view the field is still open for everyone,” a source said, adding the representatives of Mian Mansha group, and Union Bank group (the third highest bidder of the UBL) had met the Privatization Commission officials this week and discussed with them various issues relating to the deal.

The representatives of Abu Dhabi and Bestway consortium are expected to meet the Privatization Commission officials on Monday to give their point of view. They had created an excitement by increasing their bid from Rs4.8 billion to Rs12.3 billion, which was considered “out of process” increase in bid money.

However, the privatization minister was on record having said that both the revised bids offered by the first and second highest bidders would be taken to the federal cabinet for any decision.

Some people believed that Abu Dhabi group’s management was consisted of former BCCI group, which had been indicted in the past and as such could cause severe reaction from the New York and London based bankers and financial experts if offered UBL.

“But if that is the case then we must know that Bank Al-Falah is owned by Abu Dhabi group, which is efficiently running it,” argued an official of the Ministry of Finance.

The sources said that there was a remote possibility that a decision about the UBL deal could be left on the future government as nobody was willing to take any blame for accepting MCB group’s offer, though it was in accordance with the criteria set by the Privatization Commission.

On the other hand Abu Dhabi group’s written offer of Rs12.3 billion and further verbal assurances that it could even go beyond that was stopping the people concerned to take any decision to avoid criticism and fear of National Accountability Bureau’s involvement over the issue at a later stage.