ETV put on auction for defaulting on loan payment

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Syed Ishtiaque Reza
The Ekushey Television (ETV) has been put on auction for defaulting on payment of syndicated loan worth Tk 239.09 million.
The auction notice was made public on Tuesday under article 13 of the Financial Loan Court Act, 2003.
The syndicated loan was led by the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). The other participating banks are Southeast Bank Limited, the City Bank Limited, National Bank Limited, Exim Bank Limited and Industrial Promotion and Development Company Ltd.
ETV's trade mark, service mark and logo, its design right, copyright, programme copyright and the royalties or earnings on these rights, all books and records, documents and insurance claims have been put on auction along with 560,063 shares.
A senior official of the Standard Chartered Bank said: "As the ETV has failed to pay the loan we have gone for this action following all procedures under the law." The official said the present management has to take all liabilities as it is running the channel now.
The borrowers as mentioned in the auction notice are : Ekushey Television Limited, Unidev Productions Limited, Unidev Limited, S A S Holdings Limited, ETV's former chairman late Abu Sayeed Mahmud, former joint managing director Farhad Mahmud and former managing director Simon John Dring.
Ekushey Television, the country's first private terrestrial Television network, was launched in 1999 and became popular overnight. ETV was closed on August 29, 2002 by an order of the Supreme Court. The highest court of the country in its judgement observed that the television turned illegal as the transfer of its licence from A S Mahmud & Co. Ltd to the Ekushey Television Limited was not legal. The Court, however, suggested the authorities to issue a fresh licence for ETV which was not done by the than government.
ETV's founder Managing director noted British Journalist Simon Dring was forced to leave Bangladesh by the government. Its founder chairman A S Mahmud died in London after its closure.
After a prolonged legal battle ETV was allowed to operate as a satellite channel by the court recently under the ownership of Abdus Salam. Mr. Salam was one of the founders of ETV who reportedly acquired a large chunk of ETV shares from Farhad Mahmud after its closure. He continued the fight in the court and finally got the satellite licence.
Four other founder directors Azam J Choudhury, Nasir A Choudhury, Tapan Choudhury and A Rouf Choudhury settled their loans with the Standard Chartered Bank paying off the dues.
ETV Chairman Abdus Salam could not be contacted despite repeated efforts. The channel's HR Head Ruhul Amin said the number of shares mentioned in the auction notice was not the majority. The present management has full controlling shares in its hands and it will continue the legal process with Standard Chartered Bank to settle the Tk. 230.09 million syndicated loan.