Auction Of 27 Govt Properties To Begin On Sept 7: Soomro

Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammedmian Soomro on Thursday said the process to auction 27 government-owned properties would begin on September 7 with their bidding

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Sep, 2020 ):Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammedmian Soomro on Thursday said the process to auction 27 government-owned properties would begin on September 7 with their bidding.

Initially there was a plan to sell 32 properties, owned by different ministries and divisions, but after consultation with the quarters concerned, five of them were delisted and would be handed over to the Naya Pakistan Housing Authority for construction of low-cost housing units for public, he said while addressing here a news conference.

The minister said on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the relevant ministries were directed to identify three alternate properties with clear titles and transfer them to the Privatization Commission for sale.

He said the five properties removed from the privatization list included an 18.8 kanal plot of Pakistan Post in F-15, Islamabad, 841.6 kanal land on Multan Road, Lahore and 928 kanal land in Pipri, Karachi owned by the Ministry of information and Broadcasting, and 4 kanal land in Lahore and 50-acre land on Hawksbay Road, Karachi of Fedeal Board of Revenue.

The minister expressed the hope that the privatization process would attract huge investment in the country.

He said the government wanted to revive the national assets on priority. The Privatization Commission (PC) Board had approved a 30-year lease structure for the revival of loss-making Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC), which had not been operational since June 2015.

He said the PSMC was one of the premier state-owned enterprises which started its commercial operations in early eighties and had played a pivotal role in the country's economy when it was fully operational.

He said the PC Board had in principle approved the PSMC's transaction structure and asked the financial advisers to move ahead with procedural follow-up processes expeditiously.

The transaction structure would be presented to the Cabinet's Committee of Privatization (CCOP) for approval, Soomro said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Privatization in a press release said the terms of reference (TORs) for hiring of financial advisors (FAs) for the Roosevelt Hotel, owned by PIA, were also deliberated upon by the Board members.

The PC Board also discussed divestment of up to 10% of government's shares in the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and up to 7% shares in the OGDCL.

After extensive discussion on transaction fundamentals, market conditions and pros and cons of various options, the Board directed the PC to proceed for hiring of Financial Advisors Consortium (FAC) for divestment of 10% of government's shares in the PPL.

It was decided that the proposals for FAC would be obtained for documented as well as undocumented modes of transactions. The process for FAC hiring for the OGDCL would commence once the hiring of FAC for PPL was completed, the news release said.

The PC Board decided to re-invite the EOIs for hiring of FAs for the privatisation of Guddu Power Plant due to exorbitant financial bid submitted by the top rank consortium earlier.

The Privatisation Commission Board also decided to re-invite the Expression of Interest (EoI) for the appointment of Financial Advisor Consortium (FAC) for the privatisation of Sindh Engineering Limited (SEL).

The previous shortlisted top ranked consortium was insisting on changes to the agreed Financial Services Agreement, including changing the transaction scope and payment terms which could not be accepted by Privatisation commission. The Board considered the WAPDA owned property in Swat, KPK; and finally decided referring the matter to CCOP.

It is pertinent to mention that the Ministry of Privatisation is going to commence the auction of properties owned by the Federal Government of Pakistan from September 7, 2020.

Federal Minister Privatisation said, Privatization Commission is fully geared up in achieving the objective of expediting the privatization of State own Enterprise to mitigate the drain of these enterprises on the government budget.

This is the seventh transaction Approved since the start of the Privatization plans adopted in October 2018 and Privatization Commission will be focusing to complete these transactions successfully along with other transactions which are currently in progress.

In another meeting earlier today Federal Minister Privatisation ensured that long standing matters of KE are on right track to be settled with all stakeholders' participation.

The long standing matters were discussed and an inter-Ministerial committee under the chairmanship of the Minister for Privatisation was formed and a large numbers of meetings were held consistently and matters relating to deed of undertaking, deed of extinguishment and payables and receivables of K-Electric were discussed and moving towards settlement.

It is a good sign that the privatization of 19 entities is processed simultaneously, the largest ever by the Ministry of Privatization, and there is no denying the fact that the privatization process logically is time consuming as there are rules specified and gestation period for an entity to be privatized.