Share trading of Rupali Bank Limited, the top market capitalisation leader of 2006 and 2007, is likely to resume in the stock market sometime in the third week of this month, officials said.
Trading on the largely state-owned bank share has remained suspended for over eight months due to wild price fluctuation over its 'off-again, on-again' disinvestment process.
"The exact date for resumption of the bank share trading will be fixed at the board meeting of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) scheduled for July 15 as almost all its shares have now been demated, paving the way for its transaction," said a source in the bourse.
The demating of share means transfer of paper shares to electronic system.
In May, the DSE in consultation with the securities regulator decided to resume the trade after completion of dematerialisation of at least half of the Rupali Bank's publicly held shares.
But the procrastination in the dematerialisation process coupled with buying offers from the spiritual leader of the Ismailia community, Prince Karim Aga Khan, and the owner of the Egyptian mobile phone giant Orascom, Naguib Sawaris, held up resumption of share trading of the bank, the source said.
The government had earlier failed to sell the bank to a Saudi buyer after two-year long negotiations.
The disinvestment process of the bank has now been put off due to lower prices offered by the intending buyers.
"Dematerialisation of most of the bank shares and shelving of sale process have facilitated the resumption of its trading in the market," the source said.
On November 5 last year, the DSE and the Chittagong Stock Exchange were forced to suspend the Rupali Bank share trading for an indefinite period to protect the interest of the investors in the event of sharp fluctuation of share prices.
The price of a Rupali Bank share fluctuated between Tk 3200 and Tk 472 over a period of 52 weeks before the suspension of the trading.
Experts say sooner the trading of the bank starts it is better for the capital market as the trade suspension has kept the price index artificially high because of the highest market capitalisation it possessed.
They, however, fear a sharp fall in Rupali Bank share price on resumption of its trade because of its uncertain future.
The Rupali Bank, a Z-category issue, accounts for 5.8 per cent of the DSE's total market capitalisation, which is one of the highest among the listed companies.
Around seven per cent of the bank shares are held by general public. It has a total of 12,500,000 shares, each having a face value of Tk 100.
On March 11, after two-year long negotiations and deals the Advisory Committee on Economic Affairs cancelled the process of Rupali Bank sale to Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud.
