The High Court on Sunday fixed May 6 for delivering its judgement on a petition that was filed seeking winding up of Fareast Finance and Investment Limited (FFIL), a non bank financial institution (NBFI).
The High Court bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed passed the order after concluding the hearing on the petition.
In the context of continuous failure to pay depositors money, Sterling Creations Limited, an RMG company, filed the petition with the High Court last year seeking winding up of Fareast Finance and Investment Limited.
The petitioner also requested the HC to appoint a liquidator for the company.
According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange, the FFIL is facing continuous loss over the past years. It faced a loss of Tk 2.3 billion in 2022. Due to its financial hardship it is failing to pay the dues of the depositors.
The company was listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 2013. Now its authorized capital is Tk 2 billion and paid-up capital is 1.6 billion. Last trading price of its share is Tk 3.8. Market capitalization of the company is Tk 656.25 million now. It paid dividends to its shareholders in 2016 for the last time.
Sterling Creations Limited said in its petition that it was maintaining two FDRs with the FFIL worth Tk 56.97 million and Tk 54.33 million subject to 11.50 percent profit per annum.
On January 1 in 2019, Sterling requested to FFIL to encash one of its FDR and effectuate the transfer of the funds to the petitioner's bank account. Following the request an amount of Tk 15 million was transferred to Sterling's account.
Although the FDRs were matured in April in 2019 the FFIL didn't paid any further amount to the petitioner, according to the petition.
When the petitioner requested the FFIL to encash the term deposits along with accumulative profit the FFIL verbally communicated with them saying that it was suffering from liquidity crisis, also said the petition.
Sterling finally on June 08 in 2023 sent a demand notice through its lawyer for the FDRs money mentioning that if the payment was not made or compounded for to the reasonable satisfaction of the petitioner the FFIL would be deemed unable to pay its debts entitling the petitioner to present an application before the HC for winding up the FFIL.
Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan and Barrister Mehreen Hassan appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the petitioner, while Barrister AM Masum, Barrister Sayed Mahsib Hossain and Advocate Kaniz Fatima Tunazzina represented the Fareast Finance.
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