KARACHI, March 27: Three-quarters of the total outstanding shares in Metropolitan Steel Corporation Limited — a stock market listed company — changed hands early this week.

The purchaser was identified as Mehmood Ali Mehkri, who bought 14 million shares held by National Bank of Pakistan; 1.9 million shares owned by United Bank Limited and 6.9 million shares of Habib Bank Limited. The aggregate 22.8 million shares accounted for 73.6 per cent of the total 30.9 million outstanding shares in Metropolitan Steel, which effectively vested management and control of the company in the new owner.

Stock brokerage firm, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi Securities (Pvt) Limited — which brokered the deal has notified the transaction to the stock exchange.

The price per share at which the deal was struck was just about Rs1.18, which looks ridiculously low against the scrip’s market quotation at Rs13.40. Although an equity dealer said that the quoted price would be unworkable in brisk business, the share had seen trading in 189,500 shares in the first two months of the current year, between the low and high price of Rs13.50 and Rs21.10, respectively. The stock is currently placed on the defaulters’ counter of the Karachi Stock Exchange, on charges of failure to declare dividend/bonus for five years from the date of last declaration.

Metropolitan Steel Corporation had been up for sale for quite some time. It was perhaps in July last year that the consortium of NBP, HBL and UBL had notified through the press their intention to sell their controlling stake in the company through competitive bids.

The notice had identified consortium’s holding at 73.6 per cent, representing 22.8 million shares of Metropolitan Steel, which were to be sold off. The notice had further said: “The price offered for the shares will be payable upfront in full within 30 days of acceptance of the bid and shall include and cover consideration for the shares (with management control) as well as full repayment of outstanding long-term liabilities of MSCL towards the consortium (but excluding current liabilities)”.

Metropolitan Steel Corporation was stated to be a diversified engineering unit situated at Landhi industrial Area of National Highway, Karachi. It had been in operation for 45 years and was a major supplier to Pakistan Steel, Wapda, Cotton Export Corporation, Railways, Army and others, besides having substantial share of the private sector market for engineering inputs. The unit comprised a total land area of approximately 64 acres. The fixed assets of MSCL were around Rs540 million and the annual turnover ranged between Rs300 to Rs700 million in years 1992-97, when the operations of the unit closed due to accumulated losses and heavy debt. The operations were revived on August 17, 1998 and various factories and mills of the company were in operations since then, the notice had then said.

It could not immediately be confirmed if the sale of their stake by the consortium had gone through competitive bidding or whether the deal was concluded by negotiations between the concerned parties.