Karachi: Arif Habib Limited, acting as the manager to the offer, has announced the withdrawal of the public announcement of intention to acquire 68.89 percent of ordinary shares of Engro Powergen Qadirpur Limited by a consortium of companies. This decision follows the issuance of a notice on November 22, 2024, by Arif Habib Limited on behalf of Liberty Power Holding (Private) Limited, Soorty Enterprises (Private) Limited, and Procon Engineering (Private) Limited.

The withdrawal notice was published in the Business Recorder and Nawa-i-Waqt on November 23, 2024, in alignment with Regulation 21(2)(a) of the Listed Companies (Substantial Acquisition of Voting Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2017. According to information available from the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the public announcement of intention was initially made on February 26, 2024, and was subsequently published on February 28, 2024.

The consortium, which also included Liberty Mills Limited, Zain Ashraf Mukaty, Temoor Ashraf Mukaty, Ahmed Ashraf Mukaty, Soorty Enterprises (Pvt) Limited, Affinity Capital Pvt Limited, Najeeb Malik, Nadeem Malik, and Shalizad Malik, aimed to acquire the substantial shareholding of Engro Powergen Qadirpur Limited. An addendum to the initial announcement was published on May 17, 2024, followed by an extension in the timeline for the public announcement of offer issued on August 23, 2024, subject to regulatory and other approvals.

As the time period for making the public announcement of the offer was set to lapse on November 24, 2024, the consortium decided to withdraw the intention to acquire shares in the target company. This move is in accordance with Regulation 21(1) of the Listed Companies (Substantial Acquisition of Voting Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2017, and the Securities Act 2015.