PTCL Privatized?

[TheNewWannaBe]

Can someone give me more information on this?

I mean why did they have to sell PTCL? To have competition the new moddle eastern telecom could have entered the market as a competitor of PTCL instead of becoming the new PTCL. In that case, PTCL would have been compelled to improve and offer better quality services to their customers. So why did they sell it? What are the good points?

Im so much disappointed. Someone please tell me it’s gonna be good for Pakistan in the long run

[PrinceMS]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

Its always easier to acquire an exsisting business (xpecially on the large scale) than to start a new one from scratch. Its the name and reputation that sells. If there is no name (new) then it will take quite long to develop.

Ever a bad name is better than having no-name ... thats why they say - there is no such thing as bad publicity

I think its good for Pak in many ways. Competition / foreign investment etc

[Haris]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

TNW,
Hi. Well the privatization did come out of months of protests etc. and the shares offered for sale were only 26 percent along with management rights. The Etisalat group which is the ME's largest telecom group won the bidding on Sat. So the basic purpose of the whole exercise is to bring a good overhaul and improve performance and governance of the large organization. Etisalat have a proven record and on that front when they take over management PTCL as an entity would hopeful only improve, while the real ownership would remain in Pakistan.

KESC was on bidding few months ago and Saudi Arabia's Kanoo group had won, apparently that bid offered more that 50percent shares but recently it's in the news that Kanoo grp has withdrawn its interest from the venture. So now probably the KESC will be on sale again, lets see what number of shares are offered this time around.

[Haris]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

Here’s the Dawn link
http://dawn.com/2005/06/19/top1.htm

The KESC report;
http://dawn.com/2005/06/19/top6.htm

[system]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

Not sure if this is a good idea... I mean, can foreign investors really run it better then it already is?

[ak47]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@PaKpatriot1

Not sure if this is a good idea… I mean, can foreign investors really run it better then it already is?

Nope they will take there bit and run, i can only assume pakistan is selling yet another sector for pennies in order to pay of its huge interest based debt to the world bank and IMF, falling furthur into the trap of the IMF and World bank who loan to countries in order to control the markets of those unfortunate countries !

[Zakk]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

^ that better be a trick question..back in 1999 the annual estimate was that Pakistan was losing 180 billion rupees from loss making state owned enterprises, since the privatisation drive launched by Hafiz Sheikh with Mushys blessings that has come down to 70ish billion rupees..the savings are enormous ..whenever you allow Paistani politicians access to a business they stuff it full of their cronies..this happens usually in the police and civil service..when it happens in businesses it destroys the economy. ( in 1997 I remember Shahbaz Sharif was planning on sacking all illegally recruited police officers..and it was discovere 20,000 police officers in Punjab Police were political cronies..the problem was the majority of that 20,000 were appointed by his brother!)

[umer.ashraf]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

PTCL and many other big game players are privatized by the Government for two main reasons:

1. To generate money for the time being
2. To improve the quality of service

Privatization has following negative impacts:

1. At the time being money is generated by selling out Government property, so it can lead to misleading numbers in economical analysis. This money will never be generated on timely bases afterwards.
2. Governments keep some big players and property in their hands for emergency situations, when it is hard to get cash from other procedures (trade,...). So if one Government is willing to privatize every thing, next Governments will have limited opportunities in such case.

Most PTCL employees were against privatization as:

1. They were uncertain about job security, after privatization
2. They were expecting an increased work-load.
3. They feared about loosing many other benefits attached with a Government job.

Foreign investment has good and bad points associated with it. In our case we need to have foreign investment at this stage to give some boost to our economy.
As for PTCL and competitors:

1. PTCL already holds almost maximum possible no. of clients. So no investor will ever have considered investing his money to compete PTCL. (Check Warid and Telenor, they were not welcomed here as expected cause most mobile customers were easy with their existing service providers)
2. PTCL was able to decrease their rates to any lower limits, but their competitors were never going to be ready for this as they might also have wanted to recover their initial investment in some time-frame.

[Pak_Brave_Heart]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@PaKpatriot1

Not sure if this is a good idea… I mean, can foreign investors really run it better then it already is?

This must be a joke. The whole damn government of pakistan is full of corrupt thugs, thiefs , cronyies.

These thugs in state-owned companies come to work 2 hours late, and leave 2 hours early and are the biggest haramkours in the world.

When you privatize these companies, the new managers will KICK out the thugs and crooks. This will increase the profit, improve the service, bring in more investment. Also the govt will still own 60% of PTCL , hence it would take 60% of the profit without having to manage the company with corrupt officials.

[Pak_Brave_Heart]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@ak47

Nope they will take there bit and run, i can only assume pakistan is selling yet another sector for pennies in order to pay of its huge interest based debt to the world bank and IMF, falling furthur into the trap of the IMF and World bank who loan to countries in order to control the markets of those unfortunate countries !

yes like the present company managers are Angels

the state-owned companies are run by crooks. Every government puts their political cronies in the management.

Partially privatize all state-owned companies so there will be less corruption, more profit, more investment.

[antiobl]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@Haris Zuberi

TNW,
Hi. Well the privatization did come out of months of protests etc. and the shares offered for sale were only 26 percent along with management rights. The Etisalat group which is the ME’s largest telecom group won the bidding on Sat. So the basic purpose of the whole exercise is to bring a good overhaul and improve performance and governance of the large organization.

Etisalat have a proven record and on that front when they take over management PTCL as an entity would hopeful only improve, while the real ownership would remain in Pakistan…

Etisalat may have good record, but we may be replacing one monoply (Pak government) with another.

PTCL should have been divided into 3 to 5 regional phone companies before being placed on the auction block. Right now it is too big of company and the new owners may get unfair advantage of being the sole providers of phone and other services in the country.

[Pak_Brave_Heart]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@antiobl

Etisalat may have good record, but we may be replacing one monoply (Pak government) with another.

PTCL should have been divided into 3 to 5 regional phone companies before being placed on the auction block. Right now it is too big of company and the new owners may get unfair advantage of being the sole providers of phone and other services in the country.

The government still owns 62% of PTCL, so technically Pak government still owns the company.

And there will be no more monopoly in telecom. There are now 5 or 6 private telecom companies like Warid Telenor, Paktel, Instaphone, Mobilink and Ufone in pak who will compete with PTCL

[ak47]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@Pak Brave Heart

yes like the present company managers are Angels

the state-owned companies are run by crooks. Every government puts their political cronies in the management.

Partially privatize all state-owned companies so there will be less corruption, more profit, more investment.

Yes and western companies are not corrupt are they hmmmmm

[Pak_Brave_Heart]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@ak47

Yes and western companies are not corrupt are they hmmmmm

Etisalat is a UAE company and not western company.

plus, western or not, private companies are less corrupt, because private owners kick out corrupt people so the company does not lose money.

[Pak_Brave_Heart]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

Etisalat is a very rich UAE company, and they will pump more money and investment to improve the third class telecom infrastructure in our country.

[antiobl]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@Pak Brave Heart

The government still owns 62% of PTCL, so technically Pak government still owns the company.

62% controlling share does constitute a government monoply. Pak government should get out of providing phone and concentrate more on law making and law enforcement.

@Pak Brave Heart

…And there will be no more monopoly in telecom. There are now 5 or 6 private telecom companies like Warid Telenor, Paktel, Instaphone, Mobilink and Ufone in pak who will compete with PTCL

I may not know the details. However bunch of these companies are not providing any land line phone services. They in mobile phone services.

[Pak_Brave_Heart]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@antiobl

62% controlling share does constitute a government monoply. Pak government should get out of providing phone and concentrate more on law making and law enforcement.

The government has sold the management of the company. So the good thing is that the government will not have to care about how PTCL is run. while the government will still take 62% of the company profits.

Etisalat will do all the job, while the governmetn will take away most of the profits.

This is the best thing for our country

[homer_j_simpson]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

@Zakk

^ that better be a trick question..back in 1999 the annual estimate was that Pakistan was losing 180 billion rupees from loss making state owned enterprises, since the privatisation drive launched by Hafiz Sheikh with Mushys blessings that has come down to 70ish billion rupees..the savings are enormous ..whenever you allow Paistani politicians access to a business they stuff it full of their cronies..this happens usually in the police and civil service..when it happens in businesses it destroys the economy. ( in 1997 I remember Shahbaz Sharif was planning on sacking all illegally recruited police officers..and it was discovere 20,000 police officers in Punjab Police were political cronies..the problem was the majority of that 20,000 were appointed by his brother!)

solid points bro :k:

[umer.ashraf]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

Agreed with Zakk.
PTCL and other organizations, even if left under Government control must have minimal political interfere. Privatization helps in better utilization of resources that are otherwise just used by politicians to gain some benefits.

[umer.ashraf]

Re: PTCL Privatized?

Another very interesting and unique sort of point in favor of privatization is that after privatization, the jobs in PTCL and other firms will be announced publicly and will be awarded to candidates that deserve for these jobs as opposed to the current practice. Currently most jobs in these organizations were granted to people on political bases.