Privatizing PECO has legal and other issues

The Privatization Commission Board considered the legal and other impending issues in the privatization of Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd–PECO.

Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammed Mian Soomro chaired a Privatization Board (PC) meeting on Wednesday in Islamabad.

Additional Secretary Privatization, PC board members—Etrat Hussain Rizvi, Zafar Iqbal Sobani, Ashfaq Yousuf Tola, Khurram Shehzad, Eng. M.A Jabbar, Naseer Akhtar, and senior officials of the Ministry attended the important meeting.

During the meeting, left-over items of the previous meeting (22-7-20) were discussed and deferred further action till 20th August, keeping in view the commitments of resolution of MOI&P, given in the meeting held on 22 July 2020, co-chaired by Minister for Industries and Production and Minister of Privatization.

In the meeting, Matters relating to JCC were finalized, and the transaction structure would be taken before Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP).

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PC Board also considered the proposal submitted by the Ministry of Energy to attract investment from international Exploration and Production (E&P) company in OGDCL by increasing the divestment of Government-owned shares up to 10% instead of an earlier decision of up to 7% by CCoP. The Board also gave due consideration to the recent stability of crude oil prices in international markets, share price trends of OGDCL, and higher dividend yield ratio.

The Board approved few directions/ guiding rules for transaction manager(s) under PartVII & Article (35) of the PC Ordinance. The guidelines will help transaction consultants in carrying out their responsibilities in a better manner.

The Board was informed about the status of appointment/hiring of Financial Advisors on the part of the Ministry of Privatization; in the light of Cabinet decision.

Federal Minister Mohammed Mian Soomro urged that the matters regarding subject transactions should be completed steadily to avoid unnecessary delay in completing these transactions. He further added that the resultant cash flow would help the government in debt retirement.