Privatisation Board to seek party to determine worth of MACL

The Privatisation Board has decided to seek a party to undertake the work of valuing the assets of Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), which currently operates Male’ International Airport, in order to commence the sale of the company’s shares to the public.

An official of Privatisation Board said that the decision was made today, to make an announcement in this regard as soon as possible.

He said that the announcement will be made on Sunday.

“We will give three or four days to submit proposals, and the project will be awarded to the party that submits the best proposal,” he said.

He said that efforts are ongoing to complete preparations to sell shares to the public in two weeks.

The project to prepare draft policies of the Privatisation Board, prior to sale of shares of MACL, has been awarded to a private law firm.

The official said that the law firm had prepared drafts of four policies and submitted them to the Privatisation Board, but it was decided yesterday to return the policies to the law firm for amendments.

“We will proceed with selling shares according to these policies. We hope to receive the drafts again in two or three days,” he said.

Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad said recently that it had been decided to sell 40 percent of shares of MACL to the public, in order to ensure that the airport is controlled by Maldivians.