PC approves parties for PTCL, NRL privatisation in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Board of Privatisation Commission (BOPC) on Saturday approved the recommendations of the pre-qualification committees of Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and National Refinery Limited (NRL) and allowed eight potential investors for PTCL and 11 prospective bidders for NRL to enter into the data room for due diligence of the transactions.

Federal Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired the meeting for Privatisation and Investment.

According to Privatisation Commission (PC), the eight pre-qualified parties for PTCL include: 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.

In addition, one party namely Consortium of Almal & Detecon is pre-qualified conditionally.

The Privatisation Commission received EOI’s from 14 parties for acquiring 26 per cent shares of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) with management control as a wholly integrated telecom operator.

PTCL is the leading provider of basic telephone services to the private sector in Pakistan with over 4.4 million telephone lines in service.

Besides providing fixed line and ancillary services, PTCL owns Pakistan Telecommunication Mobile Limited, one of five GSM cellular providers in Pakistan and Paknet a countrywide Internet service provider.

Its strong financial position demonstrated during FY 2004 excluding subsidiaries as per unconsolidated financials of PTCL indicate: Revenue Rs74,124 million, Operating profit Rs41938 million, Net Profit after Tax Rs29,169 million, Total Assets Rs141,595 million, Total Equity Rs83,600 million, with a network of installed Rs5.27 million lines and 4.43 million access lines in service.

Eleven parties were pre-qualified for NRL to acquire a 51 per cent (33,985,788 shares) strategic stake in NRL.

These include: Al Ghurair Investments, Attock Oil Group, Crescent Steel and Allied Products and Shakarganj Mills Limited, Fauji Foundation, Gharibwal Cement Limited and Consortium, GML Capital (Pvt) and Consortium including National Refinery Employees Trust, Gul Ahmed Group, KPC Holdings (Aruba) AEC, Lukoil International Trading and Supply Company, Orient Petroleum Inc Consortium, Pakistan Refinery Limited.

The bidding for NRL is likely to be held in May 2005. PC received 29 EOIs for this transaction.

The NRL Company’s designed crude oil processing capacity is about 2.7 million tonnes per year (62,050 bpsd) with a broad range of petroleum products to cater to Pakistan’s growing demand for petroleum products.

NRL is uniquely positioned in the economic landscape of Pakistan, where it enjoys the unrivalled business niche as the only local refinery to produce lube base oils (LBO) and the single largest producer of high quality asphalts.

Effectively, NRL has an 80 per cent share of the LBO market and 80 per cent share of asphalts.

In addition to indigenous blenders, LBO produced is sold to several MNC marketing companies where it serves as a key component in the production of high-end branded lubricants.

In addition, the company produces other value added petroleum products, specialty oils and slack waxes.

NRL products adhere to stringent international quality specifications and the Company is certified in accordance with OHSAS-18001 and ISO-14001.

The PC Board also decided criteria for pre-qualification of prospective bidders for the strategic sale of Pak Petroleum Ltd.

Addressing on the occasion Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that the successful initial public offering of KAPCO proved to be a historic event in Pakistan’s privatisation programme through the participation of 1.4 million small investors.

It is a healthy sign for the entire privatisation programme.●