ISLAMABAD, March 12: The Board of Privatization Commission (BOPC) here on Saturday approved the recommendations of the pre-qualification committees of Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and National Refinery Limited (NRL) and allowed eight potential investors for PTCL and 11 prospective bidders for NRL to enter into the data room for due diligence of the transactions.

The meeting was chaired by Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Privatization and Investment.

According to Privatization Commission (PC), the eight pre-qualified parties for PTCL include: SingTel, Singapore; Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (ETISALAT); TelecomMalaysia; Mobile Telecommunication Company, Kuwait; Saudi Oger Limited, Saudi Arabia; Turkcell; China Mobile Communication Corporation and Saudi Telecom Company.

In addition, one party namely Consortium of Almal & Detecon was pre-qualified conditionally.

The Privatisation Commission received EOI’s from 14 parties for acquiring 26pc shares of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) with management control as a wholly integrated telecom operator.

PTCL is the leading provider of basic telephone services to the private sector in Pakistan with over 4.4 million telephone lines in service.

Besides providing fixed line and ancillary services, PTCL owns Pakistan Telecommunication Mobile Limited, one of five GSM cellular providers in Pakistan and Paknet a countrywide Internet service provider.

Its strong financial position demonstrated during 2004 excluding subsidiaries as per unconsolidated financials of PTCL indicate: revenue Rs74,124 million, operating profit Rs41938 million, net profit after tax Rs29,169 million, total assets Rs141,595 million, total equity Rs83,600 million, with a network of installed 5.27 million lines and 4.43 million access lines in service.

Eleven parties were pre-qualified for NRL to acquire a 51pc (33,985,788 shares) strategic stake in NRL.

These include: Al Ghurair Investments, Attock Oil Group, Crescent Steel and Allied Products and Shakarganj Mills Limited, Fauji Foundation, Gharibwal Cement Limited and Consortium, GML Capital (Pvt) and Consortium including National Refinery Employees Trust, Gul Ahmed Group, KPC Holdings (Aruba) AEC, Lukoil International Trading and Supply Company, Orient Petroleum Inc. Consortium, Pakistan Refinery Limited. The bidding for NRL is likely to be held in May 2005. PC received 29 EOIs for this transaction.

The NRL company’s designed crude oil processing capacity is about 2.7 million tons per year (62,050 bpsd) with a broad range of petroleum products to cater to Pakistan’s growing demand for petroleum products.

The PC Board also decided criteria for pre-qualification of prospective bidders for the strategic sale of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL).

Addressing on the occasion Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the successful initial public offering of Kapco proved to be a historic event in Pakistan’s privatisation programme through the participation of 1.4 million small investors. It is a healthy sign for the entire privatisation programme.

The strategic sale of NRL, PPL, PSO, PTCL, etc., is proceeding in the right direction, he added. The Minister noted with satisfaction the progress made for the privatisation of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), Jamshoro Power Co, etc.

The PC Board gave go ahead for the appointment of Financial Adviser for Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works and also approved the inclusion of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC) and Morfoco Industries Faisalabad in the privatisation programme.—APP