Pakistan puts off stake sale in largest energy firm OGDCL: minister

ISLAMABAD, Nov 10 (Reuters): The Pakistani government has indefinitely postponed the sale of a stake in the country's largest energy firm, Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd because of weak investor interest, the top privatisation official told Reuters on Monday.

Reuters had previously reported that the government was seeking to sell a 7.5 per cent stake in OGDCL to raise around $815 million. The deal was slated to be the largest offering from a local company in almost eight years.

"The sale of OGDCL has been postponed for now," said Mohammad Zubair, the chairman of Pakistan's Privatisation Commission.

"We did not get the kind of offer we had expected and we cannot sell a national asset at throwaway prices. So we have postponed the sale until we can secure a better deal."

The Wall Street Journal had reported the deal's postponement on Saturday. The newspaper quoted Pakistani officials as saying that weak global oil prices, and a poor response to the offer, were behind the decision, adding that by the close of trading on Friday, bids had come in for just 52 per cent of the energy firm's shares on sale.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Pakistani broker KASB Securities were handling the share sale, according to a term sheet of the deal seen by Reuters.

The banks involved in the deal were also not immediately available for comment.