Mithun Knitting yet to know about sale of assets since business shut down

Mithun Knitting and Dyeing Ltd, which shut down its business in 2019, does not yet know whether its factory assets have been sold or not.

The company, in a filing on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) website on Thursday, said the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (Bepza) had taken over all the factory possessions on 26 February 2019, and since then, the company has not been informed about the sale of its assets.

In 2019, the company which is a concern of the Bangas Tallu Group, had to shut down operations because it failed to comply with conditions of modernisation demanded by international buyers.

After becoming non-operational, the company also failed to meet securities rules and regulations.

Furthermore, it failed to disclose annual and quarterly financial reports through 2018-2019 to 2020-21 fiscal years. It has not paid any dividends to shareholders since fiscal 2016-2017.

According to sources, Mithun Knitting was forced to shut down its factory because Bepza terminated the lease agreement and took away all its factory assets in February 2019, after the company failed to pay off the claims of the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ).

As per a qualified opinion, the CEPZ authority had warned Mithun Knitting's management about the agreement termination in case of default.

The CEPZ also informed about their claim on the company which was approximately Tk10.68 crore.

Mithun Knitting and Dyeing Ltd started operations in 1991 and got listed on the stock market in 1994.

Its factory is in the CEPZ and the firm suffered a loss in fiscal 2016-17, having paid 20% in stock dividends the previous fiscal year.