Federal Minister for Privatisation Mohammedmian Soomro has said that owing to the positive response from the investors, the privatisation of two power plants will hopefully be completed in the current fiscal year 2021-22.
The minister said this while talking to senior representative of JP Morgan Asif Raza, Managing Director of Global Corporate Bank CEEMEA, who along with Imran Zaidi, managing director of Global Corporate Bank MENA, and Amin M Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan, called on him on Monday.
The JP Morgan is one of the world’s largest investment banks and is advising the consortium of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) which has shown keen interest in the privatisation of National Power Parks Management Company (NPPMCL) .
The meeting was held in the backdrop of the privatisation of two RLNG Power plants of Haveli Bahadur Shah and Balloki.
The government has initiated a process of implementing economic reforms in the power sector, and as a part of the reforms, the Ministry of Privatization is pursuing privatisation of state-owned entities to promote and enhance capital formation outside government budget and to improve efficiency through competition, accountability, managerial autonomy and profit incentives.
The process of privatisation of two RLNG plants was slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, after considerable progress was made as 12 parties were pre-qualified in April-2020.
The process restarted after Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed, and currently the ministry is pursuing debt-refinancing and recapitalisation for NPPMCL, with local banks.—TLTP
