Eight parties for PTCL and 11 for NRL pre-qualified

The Board of the Privatisation Commission on Saturday approved pre-qualification of eight parties for Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), and 11 parties for National Refinery Limited (NRL) sell-off. The board met here with Privatisation Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair. The short-listed parties were granted entry into the data room for due diligence of the transactions.
The parties which qualified for the next round of the PTCL included Sing Tel, Singapore; Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (ETISALAT); Telecom Malaysia; Mobile Telecommunication Company, Kuwait; Saudi Oger Limited, Saudi Arabia; Turkcell; China Mobile Communication Corporation; and Saudi Telecom Company. A consortium comprising Almal and Detecon was short-listed conditionally.
The Privatisation Commission had received 14 EoIs for 26 percent PTCL shares with management.
PTCL is the leading provider of basic telephone services to the private sector in Pakistan, having over 4.4 million telephone lines.
It owns Ufone, the mobile company; and Paknet, a countrywide Internet service provider. It showed strong financial demonstration in 2004, when its operating profit stood at Rs 41938 million
The board also short-listed 11 parties for 51 percent shares (33,985,788 shares) of NRL. These included Al Ghurair Investments; Attock Oil Group; Crescent Steel and Allied Products and Shakarganj Mills Limited; Fauji Foundation; Gharibwal Cement Limited; GML Capital (Pvt) Ltd; and consortium including National Refinery Employees Trust, Gul Ahmed Group, KPC Holdings (Aruba) AEC; Lukoil International Trading and Supply Company; Orient Petroleum Inc consortium; and Pakistan Refinery Limited.
The bidding for NRL is expected in May, 2005. The Privatisation Commission had received 29 EOIs for NRL.
The NRL 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.
NRL has 80 percent share of the LBO market and of asphalt.
The board also decided criteria for pre-qualification of prospective bidders for strategic sale of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL).
Addressing the meeting, Dr Abdul Hafeez said that the historic response for Kapco initial public offering was indicative of privatisation program's success. He said that the plan for strategic sale of NRL, PPL, PSO, PTCL was proceeding in the right direction. He showed satisfaction over progress made for the privatisation of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco), Jamshoro Power Co, and other public sector entities included in the programme.
The board approved appointment of Financial Adviser for Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KS&EW), besides approving inclusion of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC) and Morofco Industries, Faisalabad in the privatisation programme.