The government has committed to potential foreign buyers of Rupali Bank that it would reduce 38 percent of the existing workforce prior to sale of the bank.
Initially, employees of the state-owned bank, who are aged 50 or more with at least 20 years of service will be retrenched under Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), the Privatisation Commission committed to prospective buyers.
Rupali Bank sources said they have 5,008 employees and 1,852 of them are 50 and above.
The government has agreed to bear the expenditure for staff reduction in the form of the VRS, the sources said.
The commission held 'road shows' in Mumbai, Karachi, Kualalampur, Dubai and London from March 13 to 25 to find prospective buyers for the bank. Commission Chairman Enam Ahmed Chowdhury led delegations at the road shows.
The delegations presented the government plan for sale of the bank mentioning a time-frame and its financial state till 2005, commission sources said.
At the road shows, the delegations also described in detail government commitments regarding recapitalisation of the bank, employment of expatriates, waiver on restrictions of foreign ownership and branch rationalisation.
Around 20 buyers showed interest in buying the bank. They include Alliance Bank, Malaysia, Melewar Group Berhad, Malaysia, United Bank Ltd of Pakistan, India's ICICI Bank, Sabre Capital Ltd and State Bank of India, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, Muscat Finance Limited of Oman and JJ Finance, UK/Bangladesh.
The delegations informed the potential buyers that the government is working out the privatisation process to complete it by September through signing sale and purchase agreement.
The prospective buyers will have to collect tender documents in between April 30 and May 4 by depositing $ 2,000 that is non-refundable.
As per the privatisation timetable, the buyers will have to submit tender proposals with a deposit of $100,000 by July 6.
The Privatisation Commission will announce the chosen bidder on August 31, sources said.
The government commitments regarding divestment also mentioned that it will waive existing restrictions on the number of expatriate management staff. About branch rationalisation, it says majority shareholder (buyer) will have management control over all aspects of the bank's operations, including human resource policies and pay scales. The government will not impose any restrictions on those.
The bank's pension liabilities would rest on the government with the latter taking full responsibility of paying off the pensioners' dues from its own funds.
