Express (August 28, 2011)
Ministry of Industries (MoI) has given its consent for divestment of 30 per cent shares of Pragati Industries Ltd in the stock market as part of government's directive to offload about two dozen state-owned enterprises.
"We are actively considering the issue of offloading shares in the capital market as Pragati is making continuous profit," Industries Minister Dilip Barua told the FE Thursday.
As part of it, MoI has decided to offload 30 per cent of its profit making entity Pragati Industries Ltd, he said adding the price of each share will be fixed in compliance with the rules and regulations of Securities and Exchange Commission.
Additional Secretary of MoI ABM Khorshed Alam said the deadline for offloading Pragati's share was extended to August 31.
"A total of 38 annual general meetings of Pragati could not be held and we held the meetings within one month after getting permission from the High Court," he said explaining the delay of divestment decision.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed on September 29 between MoI and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) in this regard, he said adding ICB will decide when the share would be offloaded and the price value of share.
Earlier last year, MoF asked six ministries that control at least 26 SoEs to offload their shares in the stock market, latest by December 2010, to help make the capital market vibrant.
The MoF also asked the MoI to offload 49 per cent shares of each of the four SoEs, namely, Pragati Industries Ltd (PIL), Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd (CDDL), GEM Company Ltd and Bangladesh Blade Factory Ltd latest by December, 2010.
PIL and CDDL have been making profit of Tk 200 million and Tk 640 million during the 2007- 08 to 2009-10 fiscal year, according to the data of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation.
MoF on February 2011 extended the deadline for divestment of shares, up to 49 per cent of the equity capital, of about two dozen state-owned enterprises (SoEs) in the stock market. The period for off-loading of shares of SoEs in the revised list will continue until December this year.
Three SoEs were, however, dropped Bangladesh Blade Factory Ltd, GEM Company Ltd. and Bangabandhu Bridge from the list that was prepared a long time back, for the purpose of divestment - off-loading of shares.
Before that, the MoI in May last year declined to offload the shares of its profit making SoEs under its control in the stock market fearing labour trouble.
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