ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Commission Board Wednesday discussed various issues relating to the National Power Parks Management Company Limited (NPPMCL), the Jinnah Convention Center (JCC), and corporatisation of State Life Insurance Corporation (Slic).

The privatisation of the National Power Parks Management (Pvt) Limited (NPPMCL) is at an advanced stage but in order to align the capital structure with the tariff, 70 percent of the project cost will be based on long-term financing.

The matter relating to long-term financing arrangements and its capital structure with the Nepra’s determined tariff and repayment of government loans State Bank of Pakistan and local banks were contacted for commercial borrowing, a committee to that effect was also constituted by the CCoP to resolve the matter.

It was decided after the committee meeting that the PC would recourse to commercial borrowing from local banks to replace the GoP’s excess equity and loan, the rate for debt financing is fixed by the Nepra.

The transaction committee for the NPPMCL, in its recent meeting, agreed upon the scheme for local financing ahead of equity process in the transaction.

The PC Board recommended the scheme of debt-re-capitalisation and refinancing of the NPPMCL in line with the recommendations of the transaction committee.

The PC Board approved the list of 12 potential bidders/investors who have shown interest in the JCC transaction.

The pre-qualified parties would be allowed for due diligence of the JCC property to participate in the bidding process subsequently.

The matter relating to the corporatisation of the State Life Insurance Corporation (Slic) was also discussed.

The CCoP and the federal cabinet approved the divestment of up to 20 percent of the GoP shares in the corporation.

In order to proceed further with divestment of 20 percent of shares of the SLIC in the proposed privatization, the corporatisation of Slic is a pre-requisite.

The Ministry of Commerce will proceed for corporatisation and related legislation.

The PC Board decided to take up the matter with the CCoP being a competent forum.

The federal minister said that the privatisation process is steadily moving towards achieving the targets set to be privatised despite the scores of inherent issues associated with each entity.

The Privatisation Board meeting held here under the chairmanship of Federal Minister Mohammedmian Soomro.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021