As Pakistan government proceeds with a fresh attempt to privatise the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Fauji Fertilizer, Air Blue, and 3 consortiums have submitted the Statements of Qualification (SOQs), showing their interest in acquiring a stake in the national carrier.
The development comes as the deadline to submit SoQs for having 51% to 100% share capital of the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL) ended on Thursday.
The Privatisation Commission (PC) received Expressions of Interest (EOI) from eight interested parties and five of them submitted SOQs by the deadline.
The five interested parties include:
1. Consortium comprising Lucky Cement Limited, Hub Power Holdings Limited, Kohat Cement Company Limited and Metro Ventures (Private) Limited
2. Consortium comprising of Arif Habib Corporation Limited, Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited, City Schools (Private) Limited and Lake City Holdings (Private) Limited
3. Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited
4. Air Blue
5. Consortium comprising Augment Securities & Investments (Private) Limited and Serene Air (Private) Limited, Bahria Foundation, Mega C&S Holding, Equitas Capital LLC
“The SOQs submitted by the parties will be evaluated by the Privatisation Commission against the prequalification criteria and the prequalified parties will proceed to the next stage where they will be given access to the virtual data room to undertake buy-side due diligence,” the PC said.
The government restarted the PIA sale process with fresh EOI call in April this year, marking a renewed effort to offload its stake in the national carrier. It first set June 3 as deadline for EOI submission, but later extended it till June 19, with all terms and conditions remaining the same.
It has been seeking to sell a 51-100% stake in the debt-ridden carrier, to raise funds and reform cash-draining state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as envisaged under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund programme (IMF).
The government failed in the first attempt to privatise the PIA last year after receiving a single offer, well below the asking price of more than $300 million.
Blue World City consortium refused to match the minimum expectation of the Privatisation Commission of Rs85.03 billion and stuck to its original offer of Rs10 billion for a 60% stake in the PIA, ending the bidding process of the national flag carrier’s privatisation.
With its plan to privatise a number of entities, the government has missed a modest target of collecting Rs30 billion through privatisation proceeds in the outgoing financial year 2024-25.