Cabinet committee endorses Privatisation Commission’s rejection of Rs10bn bid for PIA stake

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The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) has approved the Privatisation Commission’s recommendation to reject the Rs10 billion offer submitted by the sole bidder for a 60 per cent stake in Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL), it emerged on Friday.

On Wednesday, the Privatisation Commission’s board rejected the sole bid submitted by Blue World City, a real-estate development company, and referred the matter to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation for further review.

Last month, the final bidding process for a 60pc stake in PIA attracted only one bid — Rs10bn from Blue World City — which fell significantly below the government’s minimum price of Rs85bn.

The government had prequalified six groups in June, but only Blue World City participated in the final bidding process. Due to the huge difference between the expected and actual bids, the commission gave the consortium more time to reconsider its bid. However, Blue World City consortium chairman Saad Nazir kept the price unchanged.

On Thursday, in a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, the Committee decided to accept the recommendation of the PC Board and rejected the bid.

“The CCOP reiterated the resolve of the government to divest PIACL through privatisation or G2G mode,” the statement released by the Office of the deputy prime minister read.

The Committee also “noted with satisfaction the assessment of the aviation division on healthy PIACL’s finances”, the statement said.

The meeting was also attended by other members of the Committee, including the ministers of privatisation, industry and food, commerce, power, minister of state of finance and revenue, and federal secretaries of various divisions.

The CCOP also formed a committee led by the minister of state for finance to assess potential transaction options for the privatisation of PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel in the US and determine the appropriate modes based on available legal provisions.

In June last year, the hotel was leased to the New York City Administration for three years against $220m.

The statement also mentioned that the committee had instructed the “resolution of all issues and the finalisation of an agreement for the sale of Services International Hotel before its next meeting.”

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