ISLAMABAD - The government is all set to hold the auction of Services International Hotel (SIH) Lahore on August 26 (tomorrow) with the reserved price of Rs1.949 billion.
The Ministry of Privatisation has planned the auction of Services International Hotel Lahore (SIH) on 26 August. The property is located on Mall Road, Lahore. The investors have the choice to exercise mix use option while developing the property. The current value of Rs.1,949,718,500 (Rs1.949 bn) has been fixed and duly approved by the Federal Cabinet. The privatisation programme is an integral part of the governance reforms agenda, this will enable these SOEs to gradually wean from dependence on the government. It will also enable the government to spend more on the social sector and thereby giving masses better facilities of life.
The SIH is centrally located in Upper Mall Lahore and spread over an area of more than 15 kanals. SIH is among the 19 public sector entities on the list of the active privatisation programme of the government. The present government’s agenda of privatisation is moving at a snail’s pace. SIH will be the first transaction for the PTI government which has completed three years of its tenure.
Six potential investors have pre-qualified for the bidding stage and due diligence has already been completed. The government wants to sell the hotel as it struggles to show a meaningful privatisation transaction during its three years tenure. Earlier, the government had sold 23 properties at a total cost of Rs1.11 billion. However, only 10 buyers submitted the bid money of Rs920.8 million in respect of 10 auctioned properties. Bidders for 13 properties failed to deposit sale proceeds and these properties would be auctioned again.
The Privatisation Commission had already decided that privatisation of two public sector entities, Services International Hotel Lahore and Jinnah Convention Centre Islamabad, would be completed by the end of current year (2021). The government, which is facing delay in completion of privatization programme mainly due to the technical issues, has announced to complete the privatisation of two PSEs by the end of current year (December 2021).
The auction of SIH would be held on Thursday. Meanwhile, the transaction of Jinnah Convention Centre is underway, the pre-qualification of bidders is completed and Privatization Commission is moving ahead and also meeting with CDA, completion of this transaction is expected by the end of this year. Federal minister said that the government hopes that the transaction of SIH is completed in a best possible manner, while ensuring transparency and openness.
The government had decided to accelerate the privatisation programme as it has projected to generate Rs252 billion from the privatisation proceeds in the current fiscal year. Officials informed privatisation of SME Bank, First Women Bank Limited, Jinnah Convention Centre, House Building Finance Corporation Limited, and Services International Hotel is in advanced stages.