ISLAMABAD, May 29: The Privatization Commission has received the highest offer of Rs1.21 billion from M/s 4B Marketing for the sale of Faletti's Hotel, Lahore.
The bidding for this transaction was held here on Saturday under the supervision of Federal Minister for Investment and Privatization Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
According to a PC handout the authorized representatives of those bidders who had deposited earnest money participated in the bidding.
M/s 4B Marketing gave the highest offer of Rs1.21 billion, while the other bids were from M/s Elite Home Fashions (Pvt) Limited, Rs860 million; M/s Tourism Promotion Services (Pakistan) Limited, Rs612 million; M/s Hashwani Hotels Limited, Rs540 million; M/s Unique Trading Company, Rs510 million; M/s A.A. Enterprises, Rs410 million; and Pace Pakistan Limited, Rs400 million.
The three highest bidders were invited to increase their offers with a minimum increment of Rs5 million or its multiple thereof. But the two runners up parties withdrew from the competition, which enabled M/s 4B Marketing to be declared the highest bidder.
Later, the Board of Privatization Commission in its meeting decided to recommended the highest offer for approval of the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP), which is meeting shortly.
After the approval from the CCoP, M/s 4B Marketing will be declared as successful and a Letter of Intent (LoI) will be issued to it for making the payment within a period of 30 days.
Speaking on this occasion Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the completion of this transaction, which had been stuck up for years, through a transparent process would send a strong signal for the other upcoming transactions.
Faletti's Hotel, Lahore was offered for sale on "as is where is" basis to those parties, who were interested in establishing/maintaining it a quality hotel of international repute within reasonable timeframe while ensuring that the new design of the Hotel would be in harmony with the existing architecture and preservation of its historic identity.
The commission received 43 Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for this transaction while seven bidders deposited earnest money of Rs30 million each within the stipulated period with the PC to participate in the bidding process.