State banks to offload shares: Muhith

Star (August 10, 2011)

The government will offload the shares of state banks after those of the state owned enterprises (SoEs) to make the stockmarket a centre of investment.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith made the announcement after a meeting with Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd (BDBL) at his secretariat yesterday.
“The stockmarket should operate as an investment centre,” Muhith said.
He said the market, which often faces fluctuation now, will be built up as an investment area in the next six months through the steps being taken by the government.
He said the shares of the SoEs will be offloaded and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) will set the timeframe for offloading the shares, taking the market situation into consideration.
The finance minister said, after that some of the state owned commercial banks will be brought in the stockmarket.
An official of banking division of the finance ministry said the shares of 23 state enterprises will be offloaded in three phases. In the first phase, the shares of four companies will be offloaded on August 14. Those are Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, Jamuna Oil Company Ltd and Meghna Petroleum Ltd.
Of the four companies, the process of offloading shares of Jamuna Oil Company and Meghna Petroleum has already started.
Besides, five companies will submit proposals to the ICB within this month to offload their shares. These are Hotel International Ltd, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd, Essential Drugs Company Ltd, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation and Pragati Industries Ltd.
ICB officials told The Daily Star that after receiving the proposals they will consider the market situation and then offload the shares.
However, the official of the banking division said, no timeframe has been set for offloading the shares of the rest 14 companies but those will be offloaded as early as possible.
These enterprises are Liquefied Petroleum Gas Ltd, Bakhrabad Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd, Gas Transmission Company Ltd, Jalalabad Gas T&D System Ltd, Western Zone Gas Company Ltd, Sylhet Gas Fields Co Ltd, Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd, Rupantarito Prakritik Gas Company Ltd, Bangladesh Services Ltd, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, BTCL, Bangladesh Cable Industries Ltd, and Telephone Shilpa Sangstha.
The banking division official said, after offloading the shares of these companies, they will start the process of offloading the shares of BDBL and any one state bank.
The official said, those who will fail to offload shares in line with the new deadline, will be served show cause notices.
BDBL yesterday submitted a proposal to the finance minister to raise capital by offloading shares. A delegation of BDBL led by its Chairman Nazem Ahmad Choudhury made the proposal at the meeting with the finance minister.
They handed over a cheque for Tk 5 crore as cash dividend for 2010 to the finance minister.
The bank also sought a Tk 300 crore fund from the government to run its investment activities.