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8 Companies recommended for sell-off thru stock market

ANWAR RAJANI

KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange has recommended eight companies operating in the public sector for privatisation through listing on the capital market.

Arif Habib who took over as chairman of the KSE a couple of days ago in a letter to the federal Finance Minister and the Chairman of the Privatisation Commission has proposed that the listing of these companies will not only generate funds from the sale of the shares but will also help the government to reduce its external debt burden.

It will also help improve the efficiency of these state enterprises besides broadening the base of industrial ownership and the size of the equity market.

Arif Habib told Business Recorder that the government had recently sent names of 45 industries working in the public sector to the stock exchange to select some of them for listing. The stock exchange selected nine companies but of them only one company Habib Credit and Exchange was subsequently privatised.

He said now the remaining eight companies have again been proposed to the government to list them on the stock exchange and obtain the objective of the present government to allow the participation of the small of investors in the public sector enterprises.

The companies suggested for listing are Jamshoro Unit of Wapda, Kot Addu Power Company, Pak Arab Refinery Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, National Insurance Corporation, State Life Insurance Corporation, National Bank of Pakistan and National Engineering Service (Pakistan Limited) (NESPAK).

Arif Habit said that the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf had recently said in Karachi that the capital market reform package including the privatisation process was under active consideration of the government.