Against high hopes, the Oil and Gas Development Company's (OGDC) secondary public offering has been over-subscribed by 25 percent only, taking total number of subscribed shares to around 25 million against 21 million offered shares.
Sources said low margin turned the subscription as a none-issue to the individuals, who did not turn up in a large number for subscription. However, institutional subscription helped OGDC cross net offered number of shares.
The Privatisation Commission had made the secondary offering of OGDC shares to the domestic investors (individuals and institutions) at Rs 110 per share when it was being traded at the open market between Rs 114 and Rs 117. The investors had very nominal margin of Rs 5 to 7 per share and that too with a risk of dip in value at any time after the buying. With a lot of 500 shares only, the successful investors are to only earn Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500 against the margin of Rs 30 a share of the first initial public offering (IPO) made was oversubscribe by 8 times.
An official told Business Recorder on Friday that the Privatisation Commission will present the report of the OGDC offering to its board and subsequently to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) for approval and this exercise would be followed by a formal announcement of the subscription. The date for Privatisation Commission's board and CCoP meetings was yet to be fixed.
The Privatisation Commission had made the OGDC shares' secondary offering to the domestic investors from January 11 to 13. The subscription was for 21,505,000 shares. The balloting for subscription is fixed for January 23. However, since over-subscription is marginal, the Privatisation Commission may offer shares to all the applicants without balloting.
The banks for the transaction included Allied Bank Limited, MCB Bank Limited, Askari Commercial Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan Limited, Bank Al-Falah Limited, PICIC Commercial Bank Limited, Bank Al-Habib Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, Faysal Bank Limited, The Bank of Punjab Limited, Habib Bank Limited and United Bank Limited.
The offer was open to the companies, bodies corporate or other legal entities in Pakistan. Also, provident/pension/gratuity funds/trusts (subject to the terms of their trust deed and existing regulations); branches in Pakistan of companies and bodies corporate incorporated outside Pakistan.