Indo-Bangla Pharma sponsor to dump entire stake finding no seat on board

After failing to regain his seat on the board of Indo-Bangla Pharmaceuticals, its sponsor shareholder Amin-Ur-Rashid has declared to end his relationship with the drugmaker.

He will sell his holdings in the company to the public market on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) within the next 30 days.

The sponsor holds Indo-Bangla Pharmaceuticals' 2.70% shares at a face value of Tk10, which were traded for Tk18 each at Tuesday's trading session on the DSE.

Contacted on his phone, the businessman declined to make any comments over this issue.

But a senior officer at the company said, Amin-Ur-Rashid wanted to be elected as a director at a recently held annual general meeting but the board did not give him that opportunity.

Another former director of the company, seeking anonymity, said the current board has made the drugmaker a family property by removing both of them from the board in fiscal 2018-19.

"We had activated the company, which was once down, and also listed it on the stock market," he added.

Indo-Bangla Pharma is one of the oldest drug producers in the country, which started business in 1954 at Barishal as Indo-Pak Pharmaceuticals Works.

At present, its Managing Director AFM Anowarul Huq operates the company with his mother and sisters, alleged the former director.

The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) has a large number of shares in the company and it nominated a director to the board but the ICB director is not fully concerned over the pharma business, he added.

Upon a High Court order in 2017, the Drug Administration had suspended the company's antibiotic production licence.

The ban came after the allegations of its production of substandard drugs were proven.

Later in April this year, the Drug Administration lifted the ban following an appeal by the company.

In the first quarter of this fiscal year, its revenue dropped 25% to Tk15.87 crore, but it reported that its net profit grew higher than the previous year's same quarter.

The company paid 4% cash and 3% stock dividends to its shareholders for FY21.