Six parties submitted qualification statement for PSM’s revival

January 20, 2022 (MLN): The privatisation board was informed that six parties submitted statements of qualification for the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills and a prequalification committee was formulated to scrutinize the pre-qualified parties, said a press release issued on Thursday.

The meeting of the privatisation board was held today under the chairmanship of Federal Minister Privatisation, Mohammedmian Soomro.

The pre-qualified parties are leading international investors of sound rating and it is welcoming that they expressed to invest in the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills.

The PC Board granted approval for pre-qualified investors/parties. The Virtual Data Room (VDR) will be opened for pre-qualified bidders for their due diligence for a period of thirty days, it noted.

The press statement further added that the matter relating to Jinnah Convention Center (JCC) was discussed and it was decided that CDA will issue a consent letter to Privatisation (as directed by the Federal Cabinet) regarding the conversion of JCC land from amenity(ies) to commercial.

The Ministry of Privatisation clarified that the infrastructure charges incurred will be borne by the successful investor. It was also agreed upon that CDA and FAs from the Ministry of Privatisation will evaluate the property and make a comprehensive evaluation report regarding infrastructure cost in possible scenarios of land use in future for the investors, within two weeks.

It was briefed to the board that after receiving the letter from CDA for conversion of plot into commercial, the VDR for the pre-qualified investors/parties will be opened.

The board was briefed about the update on the transaction status of the Heavy Electric Complex (HEC).   The board while considering the way forward on the privatisation of HEC, after threadbare discussion and deliberation agreed and allowed to extend the bidding date up to one month as requested by one of the potential bidders, it said.

The Board was also briefed about the updated status of legislative matters and the receivables & payables thereof. Federal Minister Mohammedmian Soomro asked the legal team to rigorously pursue the matter and bring the money payable to the Ministry of Privatisation.

Later a meeting regarding House Building Finance Company Limited (HBFCL) was also chaired by the Federal Minister. GoP is in the process of privatisation of HBFCL through the sale of up to 100% shares along with management control.

In this regard, Invitations of EOIs were advertised on December 27, 2021, and re-advertised on January 17, 2022, for potential investors. The Financial Advisor Consortium (FAC) led by MCB Bank, apprised about the response of potential investors which appears encouraging. Nevertheless, it was observed that engagement with more local/ global investors is needed which would require some additional time for evaluation.

 Hence it was proposed by FAC to extend the date for submission of the EOIs to further increase investors’ horizon for the transaction. HBFCL privatisation is one of the prominent transactions due to be completed in 2022, the statement added.

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