Maryna (Private) Limited, of Canada, one of the 19 aspirants to acquire 51 percent equity stake in Habib Bank Limited, had a poor and dubious report on evaluation by the PC of its information, and therefore, could not be cleared by the pre-qualification committee for bidding.
Sources on Wednesday said that information on organisational profile of the company, its management, financial and legal capabilities were doubtful and had little credibility to rely upon. All statements were substantiated by references from dubious organisations.
They say that at a press conference by one Rashid Amir-ud-Din in Lahore the other day, impression had been created that they (PC) did not call the company on the D-day.
The facts are contrary to this impression, sources said.
They said that the financial information submitted seemed to be unreliable for a number of reasons.
They said that the party was recently incorporated as a company, on June 13, 2003, and therefore there was no history of its performance.
The financial information provided by the company comprised consolidated financial results and position of three companies. Maryna is one of them.
The audited financial statements of three companies were not provided to the PC. Even the consolidated accounts prepared did not contain the reference that audited financial statements were available.
The quality of disclosure in the consolidated financial statements was poor and it was apparent that these were not statutory accounts. "In fact the balance sheet of Maryna did not tally with figures provided earlier.
Sources said that bank references from reputable banks were not provided. One bank reference was from the National Bank of Belarus and was dated January 29, 2001, whereas the company itself was incorporated on June 13, 2003.
The reference could not be relied upon, as the reputation of the bank itself had been in question.
At the same time, the reference was two years old.
Other bank references, sources said, which were provided had no relation with Maryna.
Furthermore, other bank correspondence related to guarantees, which seemed to have expired. The government of Daghestan had supported those guarantees. "Therefore, we needed to know the implications of their expiry," they added.
Sources said that one of the Group companies is Maryna Financial Limited, incorporated in British Virgin Islands, reputed to be a tax haven.
Robert Chemij & Associates issued the audit report of the investor, which was not a full scope audit opinion. No evidence regarding their reputation was furnished.
Sources said that they had carried out independent due diligence to ascertain the reputation of Robert Chemij & Associates, auditors of Maryna, through their offices in Canada.
"We were informed that the name of Robert Chemij & Associates was not in the list of C.As or C.P.As working in Canada.
Habib Ullah Tariq had provided details of marketable securities in his own name. However, no clarification was provided regarding the basis on which "marketable securities" provided liquidity to Maryna for the purposes of acquiring the equity stakes in the HBL.
Sources said that Memoran-dum/Articles of Association of Maryna did not specify principal arreas of business of the company.
Maryna, surprisingly, had not asked for permission to access data room. In fact, it had stated earlier through a letter dated November 1, 2003 to the PC that they did not require access to the HBL data room as they had all the information to proceed further.
"In a transaction of such magnitude such an attitude indicates that the investor is not professionally approaching the process."
Sources said that Maryna should have provided at least information in respect of nationality, national tax number, NIC number and passport number.
The authorised representatives of the company did not sign the original affidavit and even it was not notarised and authenticated by Pakistan Embassy in Canada.
Siraj-ul-Islam, the man behind the deal, had neither introduced himself nor had attached his curriculum vitae along with other papers.
Strategic investors, sources said, did not provide consent letters of Izhar Ahmed, Syed Abdul Moatl Bokhari and Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed.
Another source, former authorised representative of Maryna (Pvt) Ltd, Canada, in Pakistan, Chairman and CEO of Union Group of Companies Zulfiqar Ali, who has a claim on Maryna amounting to Rs 9,050,000, said that Habib Tariq (a share-holder of Maryna) had yet to honour his commitment.
He said that he had been working on behalf of the company and spending, from his own resources, money on engaging lawyers, consultants and other experts to ensure participation of Maryna in the HBL sale.
It was owing to inability of the principal officer that the deal could not be finalised.
He said that the company had denied him his due remuneration and other expenses that came to more than nine million rupees.
Whereas Habib Tariq of the Maryna considers Zulfiqar Ali a representative of his company a "postman" between Maryna and Privatisation Commission and for that job he would have paid him a few hundred dollars had the deal been finalised.