Lucky, Hubco Consortium Advances in Race for Control of GEPCO

KARACHI: A consortium that includes Lucky Cement Ltd and Hub Power Holdings Ltd has qualified for the next stage in the race for a controlling stake in Gujranwala Electric Power Company (GEPCO), Lucky Cement said on Wednesday, placing the group among the contenders for one of the first state power distributors Pakistan has put up for sale.

The group, which also includes Kohat Cement Company Ltd and Metro Ventures (Private) Ltd, will now carry out financial, technical and legal due diligence on GEPCO.

The government is offering 51% to 100% of GEPCO's shares along with management control. The filing said the stake will go to the winner of a competitive bidding process under Pakistan's privatisation laws.

Lucky said neither the company nor the consortium had made any binding commitment to acquire GEPCO equity. Any such commitment would depend on the outcome of due diligence, corporate and regulatory approvals, and a finding that the deal is commercially viable.

"At this stage, the Company, through the Consortium, intends only to undertake a comprehensive due diligence exercise," .

The Privatisation Commission received expressions of interest in GEPCO from 11 investors in Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia by its Aug. 21 deadline.

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The applicants included Turkish firms Aktor, Genvera and Cengiz Enerji, Saudi Arabia's Al Sharif Contracting, Engro Energy, Sapphire Fibers, Shirazi Investments, K-Electric, a joint bid by Artistic Milliners and Fatima Group, and a consortium of AKD Securities, Fast Cable and Mughal Steel.

Lucky's filing did not say how many other parties qualified. The commission earlier prequalified 10 parties for Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), which it is selling in the same first batch as the GEPCO privatisation and Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO).

Officials have said they chose the three companies for the first phase because their transmission and distribution losses, at around 9% to 10%, are manageable compared with other distributors.

GEPCO cut its line losses to 9.80% in the fiscal year that ended June 30, from 10.43% a year earlier, the Power Division said in August. The ministry said the company recovered more than 100% of its billing, added nothing to the country's circular debt and paid the Central Power Purchasing Agency in full and on time.

The Power Division said GEPCO saved Rs5.2 billion during the year by improving billing, acting against electricity theft and defaulters, and upgrading overloaded feeders and transformers.

The Auditor General of Pakistan has separately accused GEPCO of inflating its load factor to reduce reported line losses, Business Recorder reported.

Hub Power Holdings is the investment arm of Hub Power Company, one of Pakistan's major independent power producers. The filing did not set out the roles of individual consortium members.

Prequalified bidders will receive access to a virtual data room to examine GEPCO's records before the process moves to pre-bid talks and final bidding. The government has said it plans to begin privatising the three distributors in the final quarter of 2026.