Islamabad : Arif Habib led consortium remained the highest bidder with an offer of Rs 135 billion for 75 % shares of the national flag carrier –Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) . Arif Habib led consortium was followed by Lucky consortium with a bid offer of Rs 134 billion .
Both consortiums had tough race for PIA sell off in the second phase and each one of them showed great interest in buying PIA majority shares. Finally, Lucky consortium gave up after offering Rs 134 billion offer and it resulted in announcement declaring Arif Habib led consortium as the highest bidders. Airblue , third bidder , practically did not take part in the open bidding for PIA.
In the first phase of sealed bidding, Arif Habib had offered a bid of Rs 115 billion and it was followed by Lucky Consortium with an offer of Rs 101.50 billion. Third shortlisted party –Airblue –a Pakistan’s domestic airline –gave a bid offer of Rs 26.50 billion.
The bid of Arif Habib is likely to be approved by the Cabinet Committee of Privatisation (CCoP) in a day or two.
The government was struggling to off-load PIA as it was inflicting loss to the national kitty in billions of rupee every year. Since present government is actively following agenda of selling-off those national entities which are causing loss to the country.
Following the same approach , the government had made an attempt some six months ago to sell off majority shares of the national flag carrier, but it turned into a futile exercise due to much less than expected bid offer.
PIA is a big asset of Pakistan and the government wanted to sell it for some reasonable price . Hence , the bid offer of the Blue World Aviation, the only bidder in the race , was rejected.
Earlier during the day, three consortia submitted their sealed bids to acquire control of the national flag carrier.
The authorised representative of the Lucky consortium submitted its bid first, followed by representatives of the Air Blue–Arif Habib Limited consortium, respectively.
“Today’s PIA bidding is built on transparency, efficiency, and responsibility—supporting fairness, accountability, and public trust through a clear process,” the Privatisation Commission said on Tuesday.
Initially, the bids were scheduled to be opened at 3:30pm, but the timing was revised to 4:30pm.
Finance minister , Mohammad Aurangzeb , in his first response to the bidding process for PIA said all bidders are Pakistani and whosoever wins it is a win of Pakistan.