BSEC to probe share price hike of 2 pharma companies

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has formed an inquiry committee to investigate the unusual price hike of the shares of two pharmaceutical companies - Central Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Beacon Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

An official of the securities regulator told The Business Standard that the committee will investigate the unusual movements of both - share prices and volumes - of the listed companies.

"Shamsur Rahman, deputy director and Sultan Salauddin, assistant director of the BSEC are the two members of the committee," he added.

The committee will submit the investigation report within the next 30 working days.

Central Pharmaceuticals Ltd

In February this year, the company's share price suddenly jumped by 98 percent to Tk17 at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE). However, in March, its share price fell by 41 percent.

In this regard, DSE had sent a notice to Central Pharma asking the reason for its unusual increase in share price. But the company replied that there was no price sensitive information for such an increase.

The Business Standard did a report on this unusual price hike.

The closing price of each Central Pharma share was Tk12.40 on Thursday at the DSE.

The company's board of directors jointly hold 25.89 percent shares which should be at least 30 percent as per law, according to industry sources.

The net profit of Central Pharmaceuticals Ltd dropped 64 percent to Tk5 crore in the last four years.

In the third quarter of the 2019-20 financial year, the company posted loss per share of Tk0.18.

In the 2018-19 financial year, Central Pharma paid only 1 percent cash dividend to its shareholders.

Beacon Pharmaceuticals Ltd

The share price of Beacon Pharmaceuticals Ltd increased by 271 percent to Tk74.20 in the last nine months.

The company also replied to the DSE notice saying that there was no price sensitive information for its share price hike.

In the third quarter of the last financial year, Beacon Pharma posted earnings per share of Tk0.55.

It paid 5 percent cash dividend to its shareholders in the 2018-19 financial year.