Islamabad:
The government’s renewal to privatize Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aroused the interest of eight parties, with five officially submitted pre-qualification documents before the deadline on Thursday, confirmed the privatization committee.
Among those who have filed a documentation is a consortium including Lucky Cement, Hub Power Company, Kohat Cement and Metro Ventures.
A separate group including Arif Habib Corporation, Fatima Engrtilizer, The City School and Lake City Holdings also expressed its interest in acquiring majority participation in the national carrier of losses.
AirBlue and Fauji Fertilizer Company submitted their documents independently, while the expressions of interest were also received from Augment Securities, Serene Air, Bahria Foundation, Mega Holdings and Equitas, who indicated the joint intention to participate.
Learn more: The deadline for submission for the PIA extended until June 19
Of the eight interested parties, five respected the deadline for submission of June 19 for pre-qualification. These entities will now have access to a virtual database as part of the next phase of reasonable diligence. The Commission said that all submissions will be assessed in relation to predefined eligibility and financial criteria.
The reasonable diligence of the purchase has already started, optimistic managers that the process can attract credible bidders unlike previous attempts.
This marks the second attempted privatization of the PIA government after a failed offer last year. An auction of 2024 had attracted only one offer – 10 billion rupees (36 million dollars) from the Blue World City real estate promoter for a 60%stake. The offer fell well below the government’s floor price of 85 billion rupees ($ 305 million) and was then rejected.
Also read: Govt tightens the PIA tender conditions
This year, the privatization committee reopened the process in April, inviting the expressions of interest of national and international investors for a majority participation ranging from 51 to 100% to the PIA. The initial deadline of June 3, 2025 was then extended until June 19 to accommodate potential buyers.
In order to guarantee that only the financially viable parties are progressing, the government has introduced more strict qualification criteria for this Tour and explicitly prohibited provincial governments from participating in the tender.
The sale of PIA should be the first major privatization of Pakistan in almost two decades. The revival of public loss companies such as PIA is a key structural reference as part of the country’s 7 billion dollars rescue program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
