GP floatation unlikely by year-end SEC

FE Team | Published: September 07, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The stock market debut of Grameenphone (GP) is unlikely this year, as the country's largest mobile phone operator did not send all required information to the capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi said Saturday, reports bdnews24.com. brThe information GP sent to the commission is not enough. We asked for details, he said. brHis statement lent credence to a Telenor official's comment Friday. Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard told Reuters that the IPO could be this year or next ... at the moment, things are a bit unpredictable. brFaruq said the SEC would make a final decision on the matter after examining all required information about GP. It may not be possible for GP to offload shares by the end of this year completing the process, he added. brBut he did not rule out the possibility of GP's debut in the capital market in December. brGrameen Telecom, controlled by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, holds 38 per cent stake in Bangladesh's largest mobile-phone operator, with Norwegian telecom group Telenor holding 62 per cent. brIn a statement issued Thursday after a meeting with the Telenor CEO in the Norwegian capital, Muhammad Yunus said he was considering legal action to wrest full control of the joint-venture Grameenphone from Norway's Telenor ASA. brThe recent activities (of Telenor-controlled management) in Bangladesh leave me with little alternative other than to investigate the possibility of taking legal action, Yunus said. brThe company has faced serious charges of anomalies, including international call termination through VoIP. This year, the company has paid over Tk 4.18 billion in fine for its alleged involvement in VoIP. Telecoms regulator BTRC have also sued several of the company's current and previous managers. brTelenor said Yunus had met its management Thursday, and that these issues were not discussed at all. brAt a news conference in Oslo Friday, however, Yunus said a lawsuit was only a remote possibility.