New Dacca Industries to sell 48.34 lakh shares of IFIC Bank

New Dacca Industries Ltd, a sister concern of Beximco Group, wants to sell 48.34 lakh shares of IFIC Bank Ltd through the block market at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) within the next 30 days.

The company intends to sell the shares at the prevailing market price.

New Dacca Industries is a corporate sponsor of IFIC Bank and holds 2.41 percent or 3.54 crore of the bank's total shares. After selling the shares, the company's holdings with the bank will be 2.08 percent.

Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman is on the board of IFIC Bank as a director nominated by New Dacca Industries.

The bank recommended a 10 percent stock dividend to its shareholders for the 2019 financial year.

However, the final approval of the dividends will come during an annual general meeting slated for August 27.

According to the DSE, IFIC Bank reported consolidated earnings per share (EPS) of Tk1.92 in the 2019 financial year, which was 71 percent higher than the previous year.

Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, it posted a consolidated EPS of Tk0.59, which was 42 percent lower than that at the same period of the previous year.

The closing price of the bank's shares was Tk9.00 per share on Wednesday at the DSE, while the shares hit their highest, Tk10.70 each, within a year.

Revised right shares

IFIC Bank has revised its right shares offer plan as the market situation seems less supportive of a large capital accumulation.

Right shares are new shares that are issued by a company only to its existing shareholders.

At a recent board meeting, the bank's board of directors decided to downsize the right shares proposal by offering one right share against five of its existing shares at a rate of Tk10 instead of one right share against four shares.

The bank will hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on November 12, 2020 for the shareholders' approval. The record date for the EGM is September 10.

The IFIC was set up in 1976 as a joint venture financer between the government and private sector entrepreneurs, with an objective to work as a finance company within the country and set up joint venture banks and financial institutions abroad.

In 1983, when the government allowed banks in the private sector, the IFIC was converted into a full-fledged commercial bank. The government now holds 32.75 percent of the IFIC Bank shares.

The directors and sponsors own 8.62 percent of the shares and the general public owns the rest.