Modalities to off-load shares of 5 SoEs to be fixed soon

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FE Report
The government will fix modalities to off-load shares of five major state-owned enterprises (SoEs), including Biman Bangladesh and Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB), in a meeting today (Sunday) as part of its privatisation process, sources said.
The other SoEs are: Teletalk, Bangladesh Telephone Shilpa Sangstha and Bangladesh Cable Shilpa Sangstha.
Finance and Planning Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam will chair the meeting at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to set the criteria for the divestment after reviewing the latest position of those SoEs, sources added.
A senior official of the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) told the FE that the meeting would discuss the quantum of shares of each of the SoE, to be off-loaded and other relevant issues.
Sources said ICB April last identified more than a dozen government entities that were suitable for divestment and these five SoEs are among them.
The government has already taken decision to offload shares of two oil companies -- Jamuna and Meghna -- Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha and Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company through stock market.
The process of bringing both the loss-making and profit-earning government entities in the share markets is part of the government's ongoing reform programme of the SoEs.