ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received only one bid for a stake in its national carrier, as five other consortiums chose not to participate in one of the country’s major privatisation efforts.
The bidder submitted “earnest money” for the transaction to the Privatisation Commission by the Tuesday deadline, said Ahsan Ishaq, a spokesman for the Privatisation Ministry. However, he did not reveal the identity of the bidder.
Six groups had initially been shortlisted to bid for shares in the struggling Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). These included Airblue Ltd., Arif Habib Corporation Ltd., Fly Jinnah (Air Arabia), Y.B. Holdings Pvt., Pak Ethanol Pvt., and real estate consortium Blue World City.
This privatisation is part of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to offload loss-making government entities in an effort to reduce the financial strain on the country’s economy.
