Govt Invites Bids for Acquisition of Pakistan Steel Mills

The Ministry of Privatization has invited bids for the acquisition of a 74 percent stake in the Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation, reported a national daily. It had published an invitation on 30 August, calling investors to submit Expressions of Interest (EoI) by 30 September. The Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation’s (PSMC) core operating assets are to be transferred to its new subsidiary, Steel Corp. (Pvt) Ltd. The govt will then offer investors 51 percent to 74 percent shares in the subsidiary, along with management control. It had held a meeting on 27 August to determine the pre-qualification criteria for investors. The Pak-China Investment Company and Bank of China International Co. Ltd are the joint advisors of the deal. The PSMC’s deterioration over the years has prompted the government to privatize the industrial unit to revitalize it. PSMC had accrued over Rs. 45 billion in losses and Rs. 96 billion in liabilities between July 2018 and December 2020, as reported by a national daily. The last time it had earned a profit was in FY 2007 when it had brought in Rs. 9.5 billion. The PSMC can potentially expand production to three million tonnes of cold and hot rolled steel a year as compared to its most recent production of 1.1 million tonnes.