ECC mulls second bailout package of $35mn to recover PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Thursday considered a second bailout package worth $35.58 million for the Roosevelt Hotel, New York, which is owned by Pakistan International Airlines Investment Limited.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has decided to form a panel to provide the bailout package for the property that has fallen into debt.

According to a report in Hotel Management, a hotel industry magazine, the panel approved $142m to provide immediate financial support. This amount was arranged as a loan from the National Bank of Pakistan with a per annum mark-up of $5.9m.

It also approved $13 million as an annual carrying cost until a lease agreement is finalised.

Earlier in 2019, Pakistan International Airlines Investment Limited risked losing the Manhattan property and the Scribe Hotel in Paris following the enforcement of an international settlement decision by the British Islands that would have resulted in the handing over these properties as a settlement to the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) for the canceling of its mining license in Balochistan.

Pakistan had invalidated the mining licenses of the Tethyan Copper Company for the Reko Diq gold and copper mines in Balochistan due to irregularities. However, the company had claimed that they had been illegally stopped from conducting operations.