Pakistan to seek fresh bids for national airline, says adviser

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government will seek fresh expressions of interest for the sale of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) later this month, a government adviser said on Thursday, two days after the PIA reported its first annual profit in over two decades.

Pakistan has been looking to offload a 51-100% stake in debt-ridden PIA, part of an effort to raise funds and reform cash-bleeding state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund programme.

However, Islamabad’s attempt to privatise PIA last year fell flat when it received only a single offer, well below the asking price of more than $300 million.

Pakistan has offloaded almost all of the national carrier’s legacy debt and shifted it to government books after bidders raised issues that had led to the failed attempt, according to the privatisation ministry.

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“In our last attempt to privatise PIA, pre-qualified bidders had some issues with taxation and the balance sheet. Those are taken care of now,” Muhammad Ali, government adviser on privatisation, told Reuters. “We plan to publish the new Expression of Interest (EoI) by the last week of April 2025,” he said.

The government plans to complete the airline’s privatisation before the end of this year.

“We are also revising the pre-qualification criteria,” he said, adding that the reference price could also be revised keeping in view the latest accounts and changes in the balance sheet.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last year announced plans to sell all SOEs.

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The adviser said that the process to privatise power distribution companies had also started, terming it a “high priority transaction”.

He said some companies previously due to be sold in the second phase were being pushed into the first phase.

The adviser said the government had appointed Jones Lang LaSalle to advise on exploring different sales options for the PIA-owned Roosevelt hotel building in Manhattan, New York. They include selling the building as it is or opting for a joint venture with a top tier developer, which has the potential to generate proceeds five times higher, Ali said.