Meghna, Jamuna get SEC nod to offload shares

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Refayet Ullah Mirdha
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its regular meeting Tuesday enhanced the paid-up capital of merchant banks, issue managers and underwriters and decided to allow both the state-owned Jamuna and Meghna Oil companies to offload shares in the stock markets.
A senior official of the SEC, who attended the meeting, said the SEC has enhanced the paid-up capital of the merchant bank operations.
In its latest move, the SEC decided to enhance the paid-up capital of the issue managers from the existing Tk 2.5 million to Tk 10 million each.
It has also decided to enhance paid-up capital requirement for both underwriters and portfolio managers to Tk 50 million from the existing Tk 10 million.
Meeting sources said the decision will come into effect after the publication of a gazette notification in this connection.
In the case of issue manager, the proposed paid-up capital should be enhanced within one year from the date of publication of the gazette notification.
On the other hand, for both underwriters and portfolio managers Tk 30 million should be raised within one year from the date of publication of the gazette notification and Tk 20 million by the following year, SEC sources said.
But, for the merchant banks, which act as issue managers, portfolio managers and underwriters, the paid-up capital should be increased to Tk 100 million from the current requirement of Tk 20.0 million.
In this case also, Tk 60 million should be increased within one year from the date of publication of the gazette notification and the remaining Tk 40 million by the following year, the meeting source said.
The commission decided that it will not allow any company to operate as merchant bank other than corporate bodies and statutory organisations, the meeting source said.
The banks, which have been carrying on merchant banking activities, will be given six-months time to follow the proposed rules.
Currently, there are 29 merchant banks in the country, of which, 20 are banks.
In another move, the SEC has granted permission to both Jamuna and Meghna Oil Companies for offloading shares in the stock markets. The permission came following the scrutiny of some information provided by the two oil marketing companies earlier.
Recently, the state-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) submitted information document (ID) to the SEC to take measures for formal trading of the both the companies in the stock markets.
Both Jamuna and Meghna will offload shares equivalent to 30 per cent of their respective paid up capital. Jamuna will offload shares worth Tk 135 million and Meghna at Tk 120 million respectively.