ISLAMABAD: The Cabi­net Committee on Priva­ti­sation (CCoP) on Wednesday app­roved the transaction structure for the divestment of government’s residual shares in the Allied Bank Limited (ABL) as recommended by the Privatisation Commission (PC).

As per key features of the recommended structure, the strike price will be determined via the ‘Dutch auction method’ as envisaged in the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) book building system and the floor price, as approved by the CCoP and the PC Board, will be notified prior to the book-building exercise, planned for Dec 11 and 12.

According to PC Chairman Mohammad Zubair, the government plans to complete the divestment of its shareholding in Allied Bank by December.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the CCoP meeting held in Islamabad through a video-link from London where he is engaged in talks with international investment companies.

PC Chairman Mohammad Zubair briefed the meeting about key features of the transaction structure, and informed the meeting that the board of Privatisation Commission earlier in the day reviewed and approved the transaction structure proposed by lead managers and book runners before its submission to the CCoP.

The PC board has already approved the appointment of top ranked consortium of Elixir Securities, MCB and AKD Securities as lead manager and book runners for the divestment of government shares in the ABL.

The meeting was informed that the transaction structure envisages offering the entire government shares to both international and domestic institutional investors, high-net worth individuals and general public through the KSE book building system.

The offering of government shares will be via an officer for sale document in compliance with the applicable regulations of the domestic stock exchanges and the Securities Exchange Com­mission of Pakistan (SECP).

Federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Pervaiz Rashid, Khur­ram Dastagir and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and other senior officials attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, November 27th , 2014