Blue World City refused to match the Privatisation Commission's minimum expectation of Rs85.03 billion by sticking to its original offer of Rs10 billion for a stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), ending the bidding process of the national flag carrier’s privatisation.
The real estate development company, which was the only entity to bid for the national flag carrier, submitted a bid of Rs10 billion after which it was given 30 minutes to meet the PC criteria.
Earlier, the real estate development company was given 30 minutes to meet the PC criteria.
The bidding process for the privatisation of flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was held at the Serena Hotel.
Just one bidder submitted the lone bid. The bids were to be submitted at 1:30 pm. Other groups stayed away from depositing the ‘earnest money’, and hence, were not eligible to submit a bid.
The lone bid was unveiled at around 6:35pm, and Blue World City made an offer of Rs10 billion for the stake in PIA.
A total of six groups had earlier been shortlisted to bid for shares in PIA including Airblue Ltd, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd., Air Arabia’s Fly Jinnah, Y.B. Holdings Pvt., Pak Ethanol Pvt. and real estate consortium Blue World City.
However, a report on Tuesday said the government received interest from only one group out of a total of six for a stake in the national carrier as other consortiums stayed away from one of the country’s major privatisation attempts.