Shortlisted companies are due to submit bids in late December to act as financial adviser on the privatisation of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC). The Privatisation Commission, in conjunction with the World Bank, has shortlisted 10 companies. They are: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Goldman Sachs, NM Rothschild & Sons, Kleinwort Benson, ABN AMRO, Union Bank of Switzerland, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and Citicorp. Project sources say that a financial adviser will be selected early in the new year. The UK's NatWest Markets was originally appointed financial adviser by the government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The government wants to press ahead with plans to privatise KESC through competitive bidding, the sources say, despite speculation that negotiations are being held with South Korea's Daewoo Corporation concerning the sale of a 50 per cent stake. Daewoo is understood to have proposed the establishment of a joint venture company with a 30-year concession for generation, transmission and distribution in the Karachi area. Daewoo would invest about $36 million in the company. However, the government is expected to go ahead with a bidding process for a stake of an as yet undecided size, the sources say. KESC has about 1,700 MW of generation capacity.