By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan sold 40 percent shares of its key stock exchange to a Chinese consortium on Friday, in yet another sign of growing strategic and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar formally announced the sale of the shares of Pakistan Stock Exchange, valued at $85 million, to the five-member Chinese consortium at a ceremony held in the country's commercial capital, Karachi.
The consortium comprises of three Chinese companies -- China Financial Futures Company limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange -- which will jointly hold 30 percent of the shares sold, while two Pakistani companies - Pakistan China Investment Company Limited and Habib Bank Limited -- will share 5 percent shares each.
Pakistan Stock Exchange is a conglomerate of the country's three main stock exchanges -- Karachi Stock Exchange, Islamabad Stock exchange and Lahore Stock Exchange.
In December 2016, a total of 17 bidders contested for the shares.
"This is the beginning of a new era," China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Zhao Lijian told the ceremony. Lijian said his country would stand shoulder-to-shoulder alongside Pakistan for the latter's economic progresd.
The sale, the first one of its kind in the country’s history, comes following the $46 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project that aims to connect China to Pakistan's southwestern deep-sea Gawadar port through a network of road, rail and pipelines.
The Gawadar port aims to provide the shortest route to Chinese cargo destined for Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.