After Privatisation Commission, Cabinet committee also rejects Blue World City's Rs10b bid for PIA stake

Federal Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) has approved the Privatisation Commission’s recommendation to reject the Rs10 billion offer submitted by the sole bidder for a 60 per cent stake in Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL), reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday. 

On Wednesday, the Privatisation Commission’s board rejected the sole bid submitted by Blue World City, a real-estate development company, and referred the matter to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation for further review. Last month, the final bidding process for a 60pc stake in PIA attracted only one bid — Rs10bn from Blue World City — which fell significantly below the government’s minimum price of Rs85bn. The government had prequalified six groups in June, but only Blue World City participated in the final bidding process. Due to the huge difference between the expected and actual bids, the commission gave the consortium more time to reconsider its bid. However, Blue World City consortium chairman Saad Nazir kept the price unchanged.

On Thursday, in a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, the Committee decided to accept the recommendation of the PC Board and rejected the bid. The CCOP restated the resolve of the government to divest PIACL through privatisation or G2G mode, the statement released by the Office of the deputy prime minister read. The Committee also “noted with satisfaction the assessment of the aviation division on healthy PIACL’s finances”, the statement said.