ISLAMABAD (TDI): Blue World Consortium, the sole bidder for the transaction, has refused to enhance its offer price from Rs 10 billion, which falls way below the government set minimum acceptable price of Rs 85 billion.
After a day-long session the bidding for sell-off of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) concluded ended up at an uncertain point.
Earlier, the privatization committee had said that the offer of Rs 10 billion was unsatisfactory and gave half an hour to match the official reserve price of Rs 85 billion.
After more than half an hour from the opening of the bid, Blue World Consortium officials came back to the committee saying that it would not revise its best offer of Rs 10 billion.
Privatization Commission was offered by Rs 10 billion bid by Blue World Consortium for the sale of Pakistan Airlines International (PIA)’s 60% shares of.
This bid fell far below the reserve price set by the government. The government had fixed a minimum acceptable price of Rs 85 billion and asked the intending buyer to match the official reference price in a half an hour, after opening the bid offer Thursday evening.
The bid of Blue World Consortium was opened at around 6.30 pm today at a local hotel, which was merely an amount of Rs 10 billion.
The government granted the sole bidder almost half an hour to match the official reserve price otherwise the bid offer would be turned down. Since only one buyer – Blue World Consortium – is the single party in the run for buying the majority (60%) shares of PIA.
Read More: PIA Bid Fail to Attract Investment
In the case of non-matching of the official reference price , the process of PIA sell-off would stand scrapped.
In the afternoon around 01:00PM Thursday October 31, 2024, Blue World Consortium had submitted the bid in a sealed envelope to buy buy 60% shares of the country’s ace airline.
A single bidder of Blue World Consortium filed a bid of Rs 10 billion against the Privatization Commission set a minimum reserve price of Rs 85 billion.
A long-held process of several months for PIA privatization initiated with six bidders, which concluded Thursday after the bidding was finally conducted by Privatization Commission in Islamabad.
The bid prices way too lesser than the minimum reference amount set by Privatization Commission.
After the bid was submitted mid-day today (Thursday) October 31, 2024, the evening time of 06:30PM local time was set for opening the bid publicly.
Read More: Govt Sets PIA Final Terms for Privatization
When the bid was opened publically from a sealed envelop, the price announced was Rs 10 billion only. It was sole bid without any competition.
The bidding was held here at a local hotel. The Privatisation Commission board will consider and approve the bid submitted by Blue World Consortium in a sealed envelope.
Ch Saad Nazir said that Blue World Consortium, if wins the bid, would take a maximum 6 months to revamp PIA and bring it back into the world best airlines.
Amir Mahmood CEO Allegiant Services and advisor for PIA transaction also spoke to the media on the occasion. He said PIA is a significant transaction and its smooth end would encourage further investment in Pakistan.
