PIA bidding set for today with single buyer

The bidding for the privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is scheduled for today (Thursday), with reports suggesting that only one of the six pre-qualified bidders has submitted the required earnest money to participate in the process. The Privatisation Comm­is­sion had initially pre-qualified six bidders, including Fly Jinnah, a consortium led by YB Hol­dings (Pvt) Ltd, Airblue Ltd, a consortium led by Pak Ethanol (Pvt) Ltd, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd, and Blue World City. After extensive review, the board of the Privat­isat­ion Commission shortlisted these companies based on technical, financial and documentary requ­i­­reme­nts, inviting them to proceed with the next stage of the bidding process to start buy-side due diligence. The successful bidder will be eligible to acquire between 51pc and 100pc of PIA’s share capital, along with management control.