Two RLNG-based power plants: Govt considers selling own 30pc equity

If the cost of the plants is at $2bn, the government might opt to sell its equity shares to fetch $600 million.

By Mehtab Haider

February 07, 2023

A general overview of Equinor´s LNG teminal is pictured in Melkoeya, outside Hammerfest.— AFP

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering fetching $600 million by selling out two RLNG-based power plants — Haveli Bahadur Shah and Balloki.

Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Monday chaired an in-house meeting to explore different options for selling out two RLNG based Power Plants to Qatar or any other bilateral county on G2G basis.

“The finance minister has instructed the authorities concerned to come up with fresh evaluation of two RLNG power plants so that the government could take an ultimate decision,” top official sources confirmed while talking to The News here on Monday.

These two power plants were constructed with 70:30 ratio of debt and equity respectively and the government was evaluating its exact financial price to sell out these plants. If the cost of the power plants was assessed at $2 billion, the government might opt to sell its equity shares to fetch $600 million.

The potential investor might not show interest to buy debt related shares in procuring RLNG plants. The government had been making all out efforts to undertake the transaction for last several years but it remained unsuccessful owing to various reasons.

The government had utilized $1.4 billion out of $2 billion financing from a friend country — probably Saudi Arabia — to construct these two RLNG power plants under the aegis of Pakistan Development Fund Limited (PDFL) for generating 1230-megawatt electricity.

Qatar Investment Authority had shown interest to procure these two RLNG plants through G2G deal and now the government was engaged to prepare different viable options to accomplish the deal. The government is exploring its various options at a time when the IMF is staying in the town for gauging the economic health. However, it is finding hard to bring stakes of foreign investors in Pakistan amid crippling economy of the country.

The foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP stood at slightly over $3 billion and the government is preparing a stage to sell out these RLNG based power plants as early as possible.