Privatization

The Pakistan government is understood to be intent on selling the Karachi Electric Supply Corp (KESC) to the Korean company Daewoo as part of a deal to clear a government debt to the company for the construction of a motorway running between Islamabad and Lahore.

KESC, along with a shut-down truck company called Transmobile, are to be sold for a sum said to be around $3 billion. Pakistan owes Daewoo $600 million for the motorway construction project.

Daewoo has shown previous interest in buying KESC but the price it offered in late 1997, between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, was considered too low and the deal was shelved. The chairman of the Daewoo Group met the Pakistan prime minister recently, after which the deal was apparently resurrected.