Government to offload 250m HBL shares to fetch $400m

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the government has decided to off-load 250 million shares of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) at a price of Rs166 per share from its stakes. The decision will fetch $400 million.
To this effect, the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) in its meeting, chaired by the Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Monday approved the floor price of Rs166 per share for divestment of GoP residual shares in the HBL with the base size of 250 million shares.
An official of the Ministry of Privatization Commission, who attended the meeting, told The News that the consultant had advised the government to fix the floor price of share at Rs160, but the CCOP fixed the price at Rs166 meaning that Rs6 more per share compared to the price recommended by the consultant.
According to the approved Offer for Sale Document (OFSD), the offer of HBL share is being made only through the book building method to the eligible international and domestic institutional investors and high-net worth individual investors (HNWI).The book building, the CCOP was informed, would start at 0900 hrs (PST) on Tuesday (today) and conclude at 1700 hrs (PST) on Friday April 10, 2015.
Chairman Privatization Commission Mohammad Zubair informed the finance minister that in its meeting on Monday morning the PC Board considered the HBL pricing benchmarks, demand of investors at various price levels and other influencing factors as presented by the financial advisors and made its recommendations for the price at which GoP shares in HBL were to be offered.
The PC Board and CCoP will meet on Saturday, April 11 to approve the strike price based on the final results of the book building process.Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan, Minister for Ports & Shipping Kamran Michael, Chairman PC Mohammad Zubair, Chairman Board of Investment Miftah Ismail, Secretary Finance Dr. Waqar Masood, Advisor Finance Division Rana Assad Amin, Chairman SECP Zafarul Haq Hijazi and other senior officials from various ministries attended the meeting.