Pakistan Telecommunications Company (PTC) chairman Nasim Mirza announced on 19 August that PTC has finalised a loan of

$250 million securitised against future receivables from foreign telecom companies. The loan was arranged by ABN AMRO and Citibank. About 12 foreign fund managers from the US and Japan participated in the deal.

The loan is secured against future income from six telecom companies The companies are Lucent Technologies, Sprint Corporation and MCI Communications Corporation, all of the US, Mercury Communications and BT of the UK, and Deutsche Telecom. The $250 million is to be given to the government which in turn will give PTC an equivalent amount in rupees, Mirza said.

The amount will be used to part finance a three-year network expansion plan estimated to cost a total of $468 million. The plan includes expansion of line capacity, modernisation of the existing network and the installation of a submarine optical fibre cable from Karachi to the Far East.

PTC has an installed capacity of 3.1 million lines of which about 2.5 million are operational. Registered demand stands at 310,000 lines. The government plans to sell a 26 per cent stake with strategic control in the company by the end of fiscal year 1997/98 (MEED 1:8:97).