ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Division has proposed the government to delist SME Bank from the active privatisation list due to lack of interest of investors.
This was disclosed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Privatisation held under Chairman Shamim Afridi, here at the Parliament House on Monday.
The officials of Ministry of Privatizations stated that in case of SME BANK Limited privatisation, despite all efforts and interactions with the Pre-Qualifies bidders to date no positive feedback from the pre-qualified bidder has come.
Alternatively, the SME Bank is being proposed to be delisted, so as Finance Division and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) may proceed alternate plans to either re-capitalise or liquidate the bank, given piling up of colossal losses, resulting in negative equity in excess of Rs3 .5 billion.
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The chairman committee acknowledged the current status of delisting and asked to keep the committee informed on the process of delisting.
Implementation status on the recommendations made by the committee in its last meeting on the capacity of the NPPMCL plant should be re–evaluated and completed without further delay.
In this regard, the committee was apprised that Annual Capacity tests on both the power plants of the NPPMCL are being conducted every year regularly and witnessed by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (Guarantee) Limited (CPPA-G) as per provisions of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs).
Accordingly, the annual Capacity Tests of both the power plants were conducted on completion of 3rd anniversaries of Commercial Operation Dates (CODs) and current capacities of the NPPMCL’s power plants for 4th Agreement Year are better than the agreed capacities under the PPAs: Net Capacity of Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant: 1176.042 MW, and net capacity of Balloki Power Plant: 1164.608 MW.
Briefing by the Ministry of Privatization on “Sale of properties owned/controlled by the federal government” under ongoing Privatization Programme was also taken up.
Auctions were held from 7th to 28th September 2021 in various cities of the country under the supervision of the auction committee. Twenty–three properties having reserve price of PKR 1.01 billion were successfully auctioned for PKR 1.11 billion.
Whereas, three properties having reserve price of PKR 5.4 billion were unable to attract any bidder.
The IMC on 14th October 2020, PC Board on 21st October 2020, the CCoP on 16th November 2020 and federal cabinet on 1st December 2020 approved the auctions and bid prices.
Advertisements for hiring of financial adviser for sale of tentative 17 properties were published on 2nd July 2021.
An evaluation committee duly constituted under PC laws, evaluated proposals and forwarded recommendations for hiring of top-ranked IP for consideration of PC Board for the meeting.
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The chairman committee gave directions to share with the Senate committee copies of the approved correspondence with the Cabinet.
The committee was informed of the unsold properties includes Textile Division (TCP 120 Kanals Land Adjacent Estate, Phase 1, Multan, Aviation Division CAA 48 Kanals 18 Marla Link Airport Road, Rahim Yar Khan and MoIP, RML 41.628 Kanals property 87 Shahrah-Quaid-e-Azam, Lahore worth PKR 262,500,000, 162,592,500/and 5,026,778,750/and out of the un-auctioned properties is Ministry of Water Resources Wapda 2 JANAK REST House, Saidu Sharif Road, Swat, KPK worth PKR 163,200,000 the auction is postponed on KP Government request.
Briefing by the Ministry of Privatization on the current status of privatization of Services International Hotel, Lahore was also taken up.
The Chairman Committee inquired about the continuous variation in height status to which the committee was informed that height clearance from CAA was approved as 350 ft, which was further recued to 310 ft by the PAF.
The approved height was one of the key parameters used to conduct highest and best use study to determine reserve price by the FA. Nonetheless, a reference was received from CAA indicating further reduction in height in the light of latest approval of the federal cabinet.
According to the revised approval, maximum of 245 ft height has been communicated by the CAA vide their letter dated 24th May 2021, which has material impact on the valuation of the property.
The committee was informed that on October 27, 2021, the Cabinet took note of the presentation by the secretary, Aviation Division, on “height Restrictions under Rule 68 (Obstacle Limitation Surface) of CAA Rules” as well as Aviation Policy and its implementation status, highlighting any deviations (if any) and the reason thereof” further, the Cabinet ratified the decision of the CCoP in the case titles ”Privatisation of Services International Hotel Lahore-Approval of Bidder and Bid Price”, taken in its meeting held on 10 September 2021, the committee was informed that upon ratification/approval of SIH bidding process by the Federal Cabinet, the Privatization Commission on November 2, 2021 has issued letter of acceptance (LoA) to the successful bidder for completion of remaining formalities.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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