ISLAMABAD, July 24: The board of the Privatisation Commission on Tuesday decided to appoint a consortium of Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and AKD Securities as financial adviser for the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) transaction.

Chairing the meeting Minister for Privatisation and Investment Zahid Hamid said that the NBP GDR transaction would take place in accordance with the final recommendation of the evaluation committee.

An official announcement issued here said the board also decided that the transaction should be processed and completed as expeditiously as possible. It also approved signing of the financial advisory services agreement with M/s Khalid Majeed Rahman, chartered accountants for the privatisation of coal and salt mines of PMDC.

The present status of the ongoing transactions was also reviewed in the meeting, particularly transactions relating to Pakistan State Oil (PSO), land of Services International Hotel and Republic Motors Limited at Lahore and Hazara Phosphate and Fertilisers Limited.

The board decided to revise pay scales of the employees of the Privatisation Commission in keeping with the revisions allowed by the government in the budget effective from July 1, 2007.