Blue World City Refuses to Increase Rs. 10 Billion Offer for PIA

Real estate developer Blue World City has refused to increase its bid of Rs. 10 billion to acquire majority share in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).  Blue World City made a bid of Rs. 10 billion to acquire majority share in PIA against government’s reserve price of Rs. 85 billion. The real estate developer was given 30 minutes to meet the reserve price but it refused to up its bid.  Under the rules, the Privatization Commission can now declare Blue World City as the highest ranked bidder or cancel the bidding process.  Earlier in the day, the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) considered and endorsed the reference price as recommended by the PC Board for divestment of 60 percent shares of PIA, subject to terms & conditions of the bidding document.  It is pertinent to mention here that the Privatization Comm­is­sion had initially pre-qualified six bidders, the parties were (1) Fly Jinnah Limited, (2) Air Blue Limited, (3) Arif Habib Corporation Limited, (4) Consortium Led by Y.B. Holdings (Private) Limited (Consortium members comprises Pioneer Cement Limited, Artistic Milliners Limited, ANS Capital Private Limited, Metro Ventures Private Limited), (5) Consortium Led by Pak Ethanol (Consortium members comprises AirSial Limited, Serene Airlines Private Limited, Liberty Daharki Power Limited), and (6) Consortium Led by Blue World City (Consortium members comprises Blue World Aviation, IRIS Communication Limited).    Earlier this week, only one of the six parties i.e. Blue World City formalized interest ahead of the bidding date of October 31 by submitting earnest money by the deadline of October 29.   This is a developing story.