Securities regulator fines Crown Cement directors

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has fined the directors of MI Cement Factory Ltd, popularly known as Crown Cement, for breaching the securities rules.

The securities regulator took the decision during a meeting on Tuesday evening. Under the penalisation, directors of the Crown Cement will have to pay Tk10 lakh each.

However, the nominated and independent directors will be out of the punishment purview.

Crown Cement showed the current account balance with its sister concerns Tk70.40 crore in the first quarter of the 2018-19 financial year.

But the BSEC investigation found that the amount was not the current balance, rather it was Crown Cement's cost-free loan to the sister concerns.

According to securities rules, giving big loans to subsidiaries requires the permission of the company shareholders. But in that specific case, Crown Cement did not take the approval.

The securities regulator claimed that the company keeps continuing such anomalies since the violation of the rules.

The commission further said the parent company's directors also own those sister concerns going off the book.