The battle to take over the management affairs of KElectric may well take a long time as differences between the claimants (one who calls himself the new owner) of KElectric and the current owners (based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) have come to the fore, with a court battle in the Sindh High Court and the Cayman Islands.
According to the details, after the announcement of AsiaPak that it was planning to take over the management of KE, the Saudi-based Al-Jomeih Group and the Kuwaiti NIG have also taken a strong stance and have decided to fight what seems to be nothing more than a hostile takeover bid.
Their view is that Mr Shehryar Chishty cannot take over management control of KElectric because the ownership claim by AsiaPak Investments remains pending and that they (the Saudi and Kuwaiti investors) reserve the right to litigate and fight all kinds of legal battles.
Their representative Shaan Ashary said during a recent interaction with reporters in Karachi that transferring the contract with Abraaj to a new party without permission was plain wrong. He added that the contract with Abraaj to take over the management of KE cannot be transferred to the other party because that other party simply doesn’t have the shares to rightfully claim himself as the majority owner. Furthermore, he said that the current management already had a plan in place to provide cheap electricity to Karachi.
The plan to make electricity cheaper includes an investment of Rs 500 billion, Mr Ashary said. He added that by generating cheap electricity from coal, solar and wind, the citizens of Karachi will get relief in the form of lower tariffs. He also said that the deal for letting Shanghai Electric take over KElectric was in Karachi’s best interest since the company was a world leader in the provision of electricity.
