KARACHI: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday requested expedited disbursements under the Saudi Oil Facility in a meeting with Sultan bin Abdulrahman Al-Murshid, the top official at the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington.
The facility, agreed earlier this year, enables Pakistan to defer up to $1.2 billion in oil import payments, offering critical support to its foreign reserves amid a fragile economic recovery.
The SFD, a state-owned Saudi institution, provides concessional loans and grants to developing countries and has been a long-time financier of infrastructure and energy projects in Pakistan.
“The Minister requested expedited disbursements under the Saudi Oil Facility and assured the provision of evidence of oil shipments,” the finance ministry said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Aurangzeb noted that Pakistan’s macroeconomic outlook had improved, pointing to Moody’s recent upgrade of the country’s credit rating to B- with a stable outlook.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed 27 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth $2.2 billion in early October 2024 during the Saudi investment minister’s visit to Islamabad.
The number and value of these deals increased later that month during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Riyadh, reaching 34 MoUs with a total projected investment of $2.8 billion.
By December, seven of these had been converted into agreements valued at $560 million, with several already under implementation at both the government-to-government (G2G) and business-to-business (B2B) levels.
During his meeting with the top SFD official, the Pakistani finance chief recalled his participation in the Al-Ula Conference on Emerging Markets held in Saudi Arabia in February, where he met with senior Saudi officials, including the kingdom’s finance minister, to expand economic cooperation.
During their conversation, Aurangzeb reviewed the SFD’s ongoing development portfolio in Pakistan and expressed satisfaction with the pace of implementation.
He also sought the SFD’s financial support for the National Highway N-25 infrastructure project.
Pakistan’s finance minister seeks faster disbursements under Saudi oil facility in talks with SFD chief
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Pakistan’s finance minister seeks faster disbursements under Saudi oil facility in talks with SFD chief
- Muhammad Aurangzeb calls for SFD’s support for the National Highway infrastructure project
- He says Pakistan’s macroeconomic outlook has improved, with its credit rating hitting B-minus
PTCL completes $400 million acquisition of Telenor Pakistan
- Deal will see PTCL’s Ufone merge with Telenor Pakistan to create country’s second-largest mobile operator
- PTCL has said acquisition will help improve customer experience, enhance network quality and coverage
KARACHI: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) announced on Wednesday that it has acquired 100 percent shares of Telenor Pakistan (Private) Limited, with the move expected to reshape Pakistan’s telecom landscape.
PTCL signed a share purchase agreement with Norway’s Telenor Group in December 2023 to acquire 100 percent stakes in Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers (Private) Limited for $400 million. The acquisition will see PTCL’s mobile arm, Ufone, merge with Telenor Pakistan to create the country’s second-largest mobile operator.
“It is to notify that PTCL on December 31, 2025, has acquired 100 percent of the shareholding of Telenor Pakistan (Private) Limited and Orion Towers (Private) Limited, and shares have been duly transferred in the name of PTCL,” the company said in a stock filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
PTCL has previously said the acquisition will help improve customer experience, enhance network quality and coverage, and enable the telecom sector to achieve greater efficiency by building resilient infrastructure and creating a more competitive landscape.
The deal is expected to boost Pakistan’s telecom landscape, which currently has four major operators but continues to face pressure from thin margins, high spectrum costs and heavy capital expenditure requirements.
The acquisition followed approvals from the Competition Commission of Pakistan and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority earlier this year.
