Govt gets EOIs for OGDCL bond issuance

ISLAMABAD – The government has received four expressions of interest (EOI) from leading international banks to become financial advisors on the issuance of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) exchangeable bonds by monetising up to 10 percent the government’s share holding in the entity.
According a senior official of Privatisation Commission leading financial institutions send EOIs in the form of consortia including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Bank, SCB, KASB, HSBC, BNP PARIBAS, UBS, NIB, and NBP, Citibank, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, BMA, Nomura, Deutsche Bank and Silk Bank.
For the issuance of OGDCL’s exchangeable bonds, the government plans monetising up to 10 percent shareholding or 430,000,000 shares in the transactions. The four consortia that have submitted their EOIs are being issued Request for Proposal (RFP) package for inviting technical and financial proposals.
OGDCL is the largest petroleum exploration, production and development company in Pakistan listed on all three stock exchanges in Pakistan as well as on the London Stock Exchange. In 2003, the government divested 4.98 percent of OGDCL shares through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) followed by Secondary Offering (SO) of 9.5 percent shares in the form of Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) at the London Stock Exchange and simultaneous Secondary Public Offering (SPO) of 0.5 percent to the general public in 2006.
The government also divested its OGDCL shares through the Benazir Employee Stock Option Scheme (BESOS) where unit certificates equivalent to 10.2 percent shares were distributed among the company employees free of cost for empowerment of the workers.
Currently the government holds 74.82 percent of OGDCL shares and plans to monetise OGDCL shares by means of an issuance of exchangeable bond to international institutional investors. The transaction will be jointly led by at least two international bookrunners who have recognised equity linked sales, distribution, underwriting capabilities and demonstrable track record of successfully managing such issuances.