ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: In order to implement the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Privatization, the Privatization Commission on Friday invited top three bidders for a final round of bidding for the sale of assets of Bolan Textile Mills Machinery (BTM) here on Saturday (Oct 1, 2005).

According to a press release issued here, earlier on September 15, 12 parties took part in the bidding process. Among the top three, Sadaf Enterprises offered Rs72.5 million, SAF and Company Rs70.7 million and Nawaz Khan Trading Company offered Rs69.6 million. They were asked to improve their bids in the second open round to an acceptable level with a multiple of Rs0.5 million to the highest offer of Rs72.5 million as the floor price.

The second round got offers of Rs110 million from Sadaf Enterprises, Rs105 million from SAF and Company and Rs89 million from Nawaz Khan Trading Company.

No party could match the minimum price of Rs141.705 million. Now the highest offer of Rs110 million will be the floor price to start the final bidding round in the presence of print and electronic media.

Bolan Textile Mills is a project of Iran Pakistan Industries (Pvt) Ltd situated at Balek, Quetta in Balochistan.

The machinery of Bolan Textile Mills (spinning, weaving, processing and auxiliaries) was offered on an “as is where is” basis through a competitive process. The machinery is apart of a fully integrated unit of 50,000 spindles, 1,100 looms, with complete dyeing and finishing facilities of around 80,000 meters per day production capacity of variable widths ranging from “36 to 96”.

The plant started production in January 1980 but was closed down in 1983.