Beach Hatchery directors, BO account holders fined for non-compliance

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has fined two directors and two Beneficiary Owners (BO) account holders of Beach Hatchery Ltd for their non-compliance with securities laws.

According to the information published on the website of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Monday, the BSEC fined Director Fahmida Islam Tk2 lakh and corporate director Meghna Shrimp Culture Ltd Tk5 lakh.

Also, the commission fined SM Mafidul Haque and Mohammad Sayf Ullah – two BO account holders of Beach Hatchery – Tk50 lakh and Tk10 lakh, respectively.

Beach Hatchery's production has remained halted since 2016 because of the marine drive road construction in Cox's Bazar.

The company also failed to pay any dividend to its shareholders for a few years.

However, its share price at the DSE rose 16% in the last seven trading sessions from Tk11.7 per share on 5 April to Tk13.6 yesterday.

In the first nine months of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the company incurred a loss of Tk1.35 crore and its loss per share was Tk0.25, which were Tk1.32 crore and Tk0.32, respectively, in the same period of the previous fiscal.

In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, it incurred a loss of Tk1.40 crore.

Beach Hatchery is engaged in producing fried shrimps, which is considered as a backward linkage sector of the shrimp processing industry - a 100% export-oriented sector.

The company started business in 1997 with an annual production capacity of 600 million fried shrimps. It got listed in the stock market in 2002.

In 2019, Beach Hatchery took an initiative to diversify its fish farming business by using Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) technology provided by a Norwegian company on a turnkey basis.

Beach Hatchery took 101.19 acres land on lease in Trishal upazila of Mymensingh, to produce tilapia, pangas, koi, shorputi and others.

Company sources said this initiative is yet to come into operation.