PC receives Rs3.204b for sale of 89.29% shares of Mustehkam Cement
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—Mr. M. Tahsin Khan Iqbal Secretary Privatisation Commission and Mr. Zamir A. Choudrey Group Chief Executive of Bestway Cement Ltd signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the sale of Mustehkam Cement Limited here Thursday.
The PC received a total bid amount of Rs.3. 204 billion from Bestway Cement Ltd for the sale of 85.29 % shares (10,507,934 shares) of Mustehkam Cement Limited (MCL) at the rate of Rs.305 per share. The bidding was held and participated by the parties in September this year after depositing the earnest money of Rs. 75 million each. The parties included 1.Bestway Cement Ltd, 2. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd and 3. Three Stars Hosiery (Pvt) Ltd. During the final open bidding round Three Star Hosiery Mills improved their offer to Rs 260 per share with a total offer of Rs. 2.732 billion and Mapel Leaf Cement Factory Ltd gave offer of Rs.300/- per share with a total of Rs. 3. 152 billion while Bestway Cement Ltd gave the highest offer of Rs.305/- per share with a total of Rs.3. 204 billion.
Incidentally, Bestway Group has been actively investing in Pakistan in Cement and Financial Sector. The Group is equal partner with Abu Dhabi Group in United Bank Limited (UBL), which has since privatisation been making substantial progress and profit. MCL is a public limited company listed on the stock exchange. The original unit commenced its production in 1966, while the new unit started commercial production in 1981. The company produced Portland cement.
The plant is located at Hattar, Haripur and has a rated capacity of 630,000 tons per annum. The unit holds approx. 444 acres of land, while the factory area is approx. 146.3 acres. It was closed down in 1999 and employees were paid off GHS/VSS. The GoP shall assume SCCP loans of Rs. 1,239. 534 million as on June 30, 2005.
Later, talking to the media men Mr. M. Tahsin Khan Iqbal Secretary PC informed that the privatisation process of Karachi Electric Supply Company was now back on track and Hassan Associate Consortium with Al-Jummaih Group of Saudi Arabia has been asked to deposit US $ 100 million from the total bid amount of Rs.20.2 billion (approx: US $ 350 million) before signing the Share Purchase Agreement for KESC by November 14-16,2005 while remaining amount was expected to be paid before the end of the current month and the management of the company would be handed over to the successful consortium. Our target was to maximise the revenues through the privatisation of public sector entities (PSE) through a competitive, transparent and open process, which would ultimately benefit the people of Pakistan, he stated and added that it was the first time after the privatisation of UBL that the government received a dividend of Rs.525 million for GoP’s shares in the bank. Mr. Zameer M. Choudrey Group CEO of Bestway (Holdings) Limited termed the process of MCL privatisation fair and transparent and hoped that MCL production would increase supply of cement in the country and it would also help to stabilize the prices, which would benefit both consumers and the private sector.