Governmentt plans foreign share listings

Pakistan is considering four more firms, including three banks, for foreign listings through the issuance of global depository receipts in the current fiscal year ending June 30 2007, a senior government official said on Thursday.

The government has already announced plans to list the Oil and Gas Development Co. Ltd. (OGDCL) on the London Stock Exchange by December.

Last week private MCB Bank Ltd, the country’s second largest listed bank, also announced it was planning a GDR sale in London worth up to $150 million. The pricing of the issue is expected on October 9.

Ashfaque Hassan Khan, economic adviser at the Finance Ministry in Islamabad, said the new companies on the list were National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Habib Bank Ltd (HBL), United Bank Ltd (UBL and Kot Addu Power Co (KAPCO). “We have decided to offload stakes in these companies through GDRs,” Khan told Reuters.

“The finance ministry has already invited leading international banks to hold presentations in this regard,” he said, adding these presentations will be held from September 25 to October 4. Khan did not give any size or timings for the planned issues, but said they would be done in the current fiscal year. State-run NBP is Pakistan’s largest listed bank, while the government has a 49 per cent shareholding each in UBL and the unlisted HBL.

It has a 44 per cent shareholding in KAPCO, the country’s largest independent power producer, in which Britain’s International Power has a 36 per cent stake.

To manage the OGDCL sale the government has appointed Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and BMA Capital Management, while Merrill Lynch is the sole bookrunner for MCB Bank’s issue.

Analysts say that the government is trying to attract foreign institutional investors to Pakistan through such issues at a time when its economy has been performing well. Pakistan’s economy grew by 6.6 per cent in the year that ended on June 30, while the government is expecting 7 per cent growth this year as well.

In addition the GDR issues will also help Pakistan fund its external deficits through non-debt inflows, analysts said. In 2005-06, Pakistan’s current account deficit stood at over $5 billion, compared with $1.53 billion a year earlier, and many analysts believe the ballooning deficit poses the most serious threat to the economy.

Source: The News