BDBL seeks fund from government

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Nazmul Ahsan
The Bangladesh Development Bank Limited (BDBL), which is set to launch its banking activities from today (Sunday), has sought Tk 2.0 billion to the government to help run its banking business smoothly, sources said.
The bank has outlined four options to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to make the required fund available.
The BDBL, created through the merger of the Bangladesh Shilpa bank (BSB) and the Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha (BSRS), has assets worth Tk 25.69 billion and liabilities worth Tk 14.15 billion.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had approved the merger of BSB and BSRS in October, facilitating the setting up of the BDBL.
"We need to inject fresh funds and recruit more manpower to give the bank a good start," Mizanur Rahman, Managing Director, BDBL, told the FE on Thursday.
"The activities of the bank will be facilitated to a great extent if the government makes arrangement for fresh funds", he said.
Officials in the MoF said the BDBL has recently sought Tk 2.0 billion as the bank has negative net capital of Tk 260 million.
According to the first option, the BDBL has sought Tk 2.0 billion from the government as interest free loan for a period between three to five years.
In the second option the bank has proposed to sell one of its two memberships of Dhaka Stock Exchange. The membership might be sold at between Tk 250 million and Tk 300 million, said the proposal.
In the third option, the BDBL has proposed to sell with premium the 25 per cent share of its total paid-up capital through stock exchanges to collect Tk 4.0 billion.
The paid-up capital of the BDBL has recently been raised to Tk 4.0 billion.
As the last option, the bank has proposed to sell a part of its immovable properties in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna .
Officials in the MoF said they are yet to finalise to what extent and under which mechanism the new bank will acquire fresh funds.
They, however, said everything would be settled after getting a strategic plan from the BDBL to bolster its capital base and address other constraints including manpower shortage and automation needs.