AB Bank to sell Aman Feed mortgaged assets thru’ tender

The assets of loan defaulter Aman Feed Limited including its factories will be sold through tender offer by AB Bank.

In a bid to recover the default loan of Tk281.49 crore, the bank floated a tender notice on Thursday to sell Aman Feed's mortgaged assets.

Interested customers need to submit their tender within 28 February, said the notice.

The poultry feed maker Aman Feed is a listed company and also a sister concern of Aman Group.

As per the company's financial statement, the approximate value of its property, including the factories and pieces of land in Sirajganj and Gazipur, is more than Tk140 crore.

"We allowed them enough time, but they did not repay the loan. That is why we have to sell their assets as per the Money Loan Court Act, 2003," an official of the private sector lender told The Business Standard, seeking anonymity. 

In August last year, the bank put the Aman Feed's assets up for auction, but failed to make a sale.

Later, the company secured a stay from the High Court on the auction notice. The HC asked the firm to repay Tk60 crore – Tk20 crore per month – to the lender by December 2020, but the company did not comply with the court order.

On 21 January this year, the bank again went to sell the company assets at auction, but to no avail.

This correspondent phoned both Aman Feed Managing Director Shafiqul Islam and its Secretary Md Monirul Islam for comments but they did not answer.

Meanwhile, the securities regulator Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Chairman Professor Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam invited both the parties into his office on Thursday to resolve the dispute.

A BSEC source said the chairman also arranged a meeting between the two parties to resolve the issue through mutual understanding to protect the general shareholder's interest, but AB Bank turned down the proposal of mutual understanding.

Then the commission asked them to submit all documents on the issue.

On 22 October last year, BSEC set up an inquiry committee to unearth alleged irregularities in the financial statements and in the corporate governance of Aman Feed.

The committee is working to verify all the information in Aman Feed's audited financial statements from 2015 to 2020.

The company got listed on the country's stock exchanges in 2015. It has raised Tk72 crore by issuing two crore shares at Tk36 each, including a Tk26 premium, through an initial public offering (IPO).

The company, however, in its IPO utilisation report, submitted to the stock market regulator, said all the loans as per the proposal in the IPO were repaid to AB Bank.

On 28 January last year, the securities regulator fined four directors of Aman Feed Tk25 lakh each for providing false information on using IPO funds.

The BSEC has also ordered the Institute of Chartered Accountants to take action against the Aman Feed's auditor ACNABIN Chartered Accountants.

The firm breached rules by not mentioning the violation of the securities law in its audit report. Consequently, Md Rokonuzzaman, a partner of the accounting firm, will never be allowed to audit the spending of any IPO fund.

In the last fiscal year, the company posted around Tk800 crore in revenue and a net profit of Tk35 crore. It recommended 10% cash and 2.5% stock dividends to the shareholders for the last fiscal.

Though the company did not pay back its bank loan, it has been paying dividends to its shareholders on a regular basis since its listing on the capital market.