Pakistan’s Oil and Gas Sector to Sell Stakes to Investors
The Pakistan government is offering investors in the Emirates its stakes in nine corporations, including the country’s largest lender and its biggest oil and gas exploration firm, as it seeks to reduce debt.
Officials from Pakistan’s privatisation commission along with JP Morgan, the lead manager on the project, recently concluded a series of presentations to investment houses including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, as well as Emirates Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation and Invest AD.
“Eventually the government will sell all its shareholding,” said Waqar Ahmed Khan, the privatisation minister. “We are doing the number crunching, developing baseline formulas and doing evaluations for a number of projects.”
The holdings in the first batch of companies are expected to be sold within the first half of next year, he said.
The government may sell its holdings in firms including the National Bank of Pakistan, which has assets of more than US$10 billion (Dh36.73bn).
Oil and Gas Development Corporation and Pakistan Petroleum, two oil and gas exploration companies, the energy firms Faisalabad Electricity, Kot Addu Power and Jamshoro Power, Pakistan Post Office and State Life Corporation of Pakistan, the country’s biggest life insurer, are also on offer.
The government is also offering its remaining 42 per cent stake in Habib Bank. The Agha Khan Fund for Economic Development owns the majority stake in Pakistan’s largest private commercial bank.
