KARACHI, Aug 31: Emirates Telecommunications, which won 26 per cent stake and management control of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company in a June auction, will take over the telecoms utility on Sept 18.

PTCL officials said Emirates Telecommunications, also known as Etisalat, would submit 25 per cent of the bid money ($2.598 billion) on the takeover day.

They recalled that 10 per cent of the bid money had already been paid by Etisalat. They added that the UAE-based telecoms company had yet to pay the remaining 90 per cent of the bid money, which came to $2.25 billion.

They said they had been attending a pre-takeover workshop with Etisalat officials for the past two days. They said that Etisalat had given a checklist of required measures to the PTCL. The PTCL would get back to Etisalat by Sept 7-8, they said.

Etisalat has already announced that it expects the $2.59 billion investment to pay off within five years.

The PTCL officials told Dawn that the deal would be 25 per cent financed through equity and 75 per cent through bank lending. The Dubai Islamic Bank will provide 10 per cent of the equity and 10 per cent of the debt component.

PTCL sell-off process was slightly delayed because of a countrywide strike by workers, but the administration used force and negotiations to break the strike.