Privatisation Commission approves Rs 80.715 million bid for Kohinoor Oil Mills

Iqbal Afridi of Bara Ghee Mills on Tuesday was the highest bidder for 60.5 percent shares of Kohinoor Oil Mills Limited (KOML) with Rs 80.715 million offer (Rs 255 per share).
The Privatisation Board in the afternoon approved the highest bid and decided to refer it to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) for approval.
There were five parties in the run, but the real contest was between Iqbal Afridi of Bara Ghee Mills and Sheharyar Saigal of Kohinoor Sugar Group. Both parties showed healthy competition by taking the bid from Rs 145 per share, offered by Mohen Lal of Kohisar Enterprises, to Rs 255 per share, which finally ended up in Iqbal Afridi's favour. Kohinoor Sugar Group was runner-up with Rs 250 per share offer.
Later on, talking to the reporters Minister for Privatisation Abdul Hafeez Shaikh termed Haji Iqbal's offer as encouraging for the government to push forward its agenda of strategic public sector entities' sell-off. He hoped that divestment of KOML would generate economic activity in the area and play its role in national progress.
The minister disagreed with a questioner that Defence Ministry was an obstacle in PSO sell-off. He conceded that some controversial issues were yet to be resolved for PSO sell-off but his claim was that these were not from the Ministry of Defence.
He added that larger entities take some time and the same was true in the case of PSO. He said PC has got approved interim tariff formula for KESC's quick sell-off.
He added that PIA, PPL and Jamshoro Power Generation Company's initial public offering (IPOs) would be announced before June 30.
Haji Iqbal Afridi told the newsmen that he would make KOML operational in 6 to 12 months. According to him, Iqbal Bara Ghee Mills which he had acquired through privatisation, was fully operational in FATA and was meeting ghee and cooking oil requirements in the area, besides providing jobs to a good number of people.
KOML is situated on land measuring approximately 62.2 acres on main GT Road, Kala Shah Kaku, Tehsil Ferozewala, District Sheikupura.
It was converted into public limited company in 1971 and nationalised in September 1973. All employees of the unit were paid VSS/GHS in 1997 and currently the unit is closed.
The plant has capacity to produce 27200 tons of ghee while solvent extraction plant's annual rated capacity is 33000 tons.
The unit also has seed handling/crushing equipment as well as solvent extraction plant (SEP).
SEP was closed down in 1995 while ghee manufacturing was stopped in 1997.