Three consortia appointed as FAs
WASIM IQBAL
ISLAMABAD: The Privatization Commission on Tuesday appointed three consortia as Financial Advisors (FAs) for divestment of government shares in Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and United Bank Limited (UBL).
The decision has been taken in the 4th meeting of the PC Board under the chairmanship of Muhammad Zubair. The board examined the expertise and capability of around 13 consortia which had been shortlisted by the Evaluation Committee of the PC for FAs of three Public Sector Entities (PSEs), an official said. However, on Tuesday, the Board selected three in the light of directives of the evaluation committees.
The board on the basis of the technical and financial scoring unanimously approved initiation of the contract negotiations with the consortium of Merrill Lynch International, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, KASB Bank Limited for OGDCL, Habib Bank Limited, Bank Alfalah Limited, Arif Habib Limited, Foundation Securities (Pvt) Limited, BMA Capital Management Limited for PPL and consortium of Credit Suisse, Arif Habib Limited & Elixir Securities for UBL, as Financial Advisors.
Last week, the evaluation committee examined six consortiums for lead manager(s) and book runner(s) for the divestment of up to 5 percent government shares of PPL. Three consortiums were evaluated by the evaluation committee for the divestment of up to 10 percent government shares of OGDCL and six consortiums for offloading the shares in UBL.
Sources said the planned capital market transactions of three PSEs in September 2014 would depend on investment climate as well as market conditions at home and aboard.
The Finance Ministry has committed to the IMF in its Letter of Intent (LoI) submitted on March 16, 2014 that three financial advisors would be hired by March-end 2014 (structural benchmark) to offer minority shares in three companies in domestic or international market by June-end 2014 subject to investor interest and global market transactions.
The OGDCL and PPL have been listed internationally. According to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar the divestment has been delayed for three months and now would take place in September 2014 instead of June 2014 as committed to the Fund.
