Pakistan announces overseas share sales

Karachi: Pakistan plans to sell shares overseas in the nation's biggest power producer by market value, reviving $3.5 billion of asset sales that stalled when President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule.

The Privatisation Commission will appoint a fin-ancial adviser to sell global depositary receipts, or GDRs, in Kot Addu Power, according to a statement released in Islamabad. It did not provide a size or timeframe.

The sale will test investor confidence in the nation's seven per cent economic growth after three months of violence and instability that claimed the life of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and stalled elections for six weeks. The turmoil delayed a sale of shares in National Bank of Pakistan that the government needs to help repay $38 billion of overseas debt.

By the time the Kot Addu sale commences, "the political temperature in Pakistan should be back to normal, with elections held and a new government in place", said Zaheeruddin Khalid, who helps oversee about $300 million at Al-Meezan Investment Management in Karachi. "Investors still have confidence in Pakistan's economy because it has shown resilience throughout."