The privatisation commission said it had a good response to the auction of a further seven small scale state-owned industrial units on 3-4 June.

The highest bids are:

Ravi Engineering - Rs 16 million ($517,300) from Petrosin of Singapore

Lyallpur Chemicals - Rs 311 million ($10 million) from an employees group

Ittehad Chemicals - Rs 20.10 ($0.649) a share from Chemi Group

Hazara Phosphate - Rs 9.00 ($0.29) a share from Aslam Pervaiz

Textile Machinery Company - Rs 26 million ($841,423) from Omer Sons

General Refractories - Rs 30.5 million ($987,000) from Sardar Baluch

Pak Hy Oils - Rs 75 million ($2.4 million) from Tariq Saddiqui

The commission said the bids were encouraging and that it was confident that the sale of most of the units would be completed.

Other privatisations are also proceeding, a commission source said. It expects to appoint a financial adviser for the sale of Bankers Equity before the end of June. Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation is due to be incorporated by early July. The privatisation of the Pakistan Arab Fertilisers and the Pakistan Saudi Fertiliser Corporation is due to go ahead in the second half of 1995. However, the commission says it intends to take a different approach with the sale of these two firms.