Pakistan Stock Exchange says Shanghai bourse interested in buying stake

Pakistan Stock Exchange Ltd has received interest from international companies including the Shanghai Stock Exchange to buy a stake, the head of the Pakistani bourse said on Monday.



The Pakistani bourse has been searching for a strategic investor and in July invited companies to show interest in buying a stake of up to 40 per cent.

"By late August, early September expressions of interest were received, including from Shanghai Stock Exchange," Nadeem Naqvi, Managing Director of Pakistan Stock Exchange, told Reuters by telephone.

Shanghai Stock Exchange did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier, one Pakistani and three foreign investors had expressed their interest in acquiring a stake of up to 40% in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), a source with direct knowledge of the affair told The Express Tribune.

Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), which is one of the two bourses operating in China, was interested in obtaining a substantial shareholding in the unified national bourse, he said.



In addition to the SSE, a consortium of three financial institutions, which includes “one of the leading stock exchanges of Europe”, had also shown interest in purchasing a strategic stake in the PSX.

“A delegation of the PSX is scheduled to go abroad in the week beginning on July 18 to hold one-on-one meetings with potential foreign strategic investors,” he had said.

The only local player that had expressed interest in buying up to 40% shares in the PSX is Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company, a development financial institution (DFI) that funds “economically viable and technically feasible projects.”