PSX divestment: bid opening date extended to December 15

The opening date of bids, submitted by foreign strategic investors and local institutions to acquire 40 percent stake of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), has been extended to December 15, 2016. A meeting of PSX Divestment Committee was held on Monday to open bids and after a long discussion it was decided to extend the bid opening date.

PSX Divestment Committee Chairman Shahzad Chamdia told Business Recorder that various clauses of legal documents were still to be finalised. He said negotiations with bidders would continue and hopefully all clauses of necessary legal documents would be finalized before December 15.

To acquire 40 percent stake of PSX, initially 17 bids were submitted by foreign and local strategic investors and financial institutions. The foreign strategic investors are a consortium of Nasdaq and two UK-based funds and Chinese based consortium of Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges with one Chinese fund. Among the local financial institutions MCB Bank, Allied Bank, Pak-Kuwait Investment Company and Pak-Oman Investment Company and others had submitted their bids to acquire 40 percent stake of PSX.

After opening of bids, a letter of acceptance would be issued to the successful bidder and then a formal sale-purchase agreement would be signed between the parties. The deadline for completion of this bidding process and sale of 40 percent stake of PSX to strategic investors is December 27, 2016. As per demutualization process, the remaining 20 percent shares of PSX would be offered to general public through Initial Public Offering (IPO) within 6 months after completion of the bidding process.