islamabad
The SECP has approved offer for sale of up to 241,921,931 ordinary shares (19.8pc) of United Bank Limited (UBL) through stock market. The present offer will be made through book building to the institutional investors and high net-worth individual investors, both local and foreign.
The offer is being made as part of privatisation process by which the Privatisation Commission, Government of Pakistan is divesting its 19.8pc shareholding in UBL. The present offer consists of 160,000,000 ordinary shares representing 13.1pc of the total paid up share capital of UBL with an upsize option of up to an additional 81,921,931 ordinary shares representing 6.7pc of the total paid up share capital of UBL at a floor price which shall be at a premium to the par value of Rs 10. The book building will be done through international book building mechanism. The book will be run jointly by Credit Suisse (Singapore) Limited, Arif Habib Limited and Elixir Securities Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd and will be maintained internationally by Credit Suiss. The government of Pakistan would disinvest the shares of UBL on June 11 2014. This would be the first privatisation activity in the country since 2006 that would accelerate with the passage of time, as government planned to privatise 68 public sector entities during its five years constitutional tenure. The govt would generate $400 million from disinvestments of UBL’s 20 percent shares, which is likely to be completed on June 3 2014.
The federal government has already sold 80.2 percent shares in UBL. General Pervez Musharraf’s government had raised Rs53 billion by selling UBL’s shares through three separate transactions, which were carried out from 2002 to 2007