High interest in Mustehkam Cement

The Pakistan Privatisation Commission has received 38 expressions of interest (EoI) for 85.29 percent share of Mustehkam Cement Limited (MCL). Minister for Privatisation, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, declared the results here on Saturday. He said the EoIs reflected investors’ confidence in the government’s economic and privatisation policies. He said that the privatisation program was heading forward satisfactorily and successfully to encourage the private sector for more investment. He said the ’privatisation for the people’ programme transmitted the benefit to the common man through public offerings of GoP shares in public sector entities.

The companies, which have submitted EoIs, include: Bestway Cement Ltd; BNP Group; Fauji Cement Company; Fecto Cement Ltd; Ghazi Group; Gulistan Group of Companies; Hunza Group of Companies and others.

MCL is a public limited company listed on the stock exchange. The original unit commenced its production in 1966, while the new unit started commercial production in 1981. The company produced portland cement. The plant is located at Hattar, Haripur, and has a rated capacity of 660,000 tons per annum. The unit stretches over approximately 445 acres of land but was closed down in 1999 and employees were
paid off.