Cash-strapped Biman won\\\'t go public soon

The state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines has no plan to offload its share in the capital market this year, although its board recently made a proposal in this connection.
The proposal was made as the national flag carrier to overcome the serious fund crisis it had been going through.
When asked, Biman Managing Director and CEO Kevin John Steele told the FE that it had no plan to offload its shares right at the moment.
"The attention you draw to the news that Biman is going to offload its 49 per cent shares in the capital market but there is no truth in that story," Mr Kevin wrote in a mail message in reply to a query of the FE.
The Biman CEO recently approached the government seeking US$ 200 million to manage the current fund crisis.
In a letter to the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Mr Kevin wrote: "In my humble view, I do think Biman will go bankrupt in the next 4 months, if there is no capital injection."
Immediate past Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister GM Quader earlier in June 2013 announced that the government would offload Biman shares in the capital market very soon.
He also said that before floating Biman shares in the capital market, its transformation into a public limited company had to be ratified by the parliament.
"Once the parliament approves it, we'll start the procedure for offloading shares," Mr Quader added.
Earlier, a parliamentary watchdog in December 2012 suggested that the Biman authorities should offload at least 51 per cent of its shares to turn it into a real public limited company, or else, abide by the government's decision.
The military-backed interim government in 2008 turned the Biman into a public limited company, authorising its board of directors to take decisions without any dictation from the civil aviation ministry.
Finance ministry sources said apart from the Biman, the proposal for offloading shares of 34 state-run companies was approved by the prime minister and the finance minister back in 2010. Following the approval a directive was also issued to the concerned companies to complete the share offloading process by December of the same year. But none of the companies could maintain the deadline.
The state-run Biman made a small profit in the fiscal year 2008-09.
The national flag carrier had signed a deal with the US Boeing company to buy 10 'new generation' aircraft-four 787-8s or 'Dreamliners', four 777-300ERs and two 737-800s.
The Biman was converted into a public limited company (PLC) in 2007 by an ordinance of the past caretaker government.
The total deficit of Biman now stands at Tk 15.0 billion while the available funds stand at Tk 870 million, according to a Biman statement as of December 15 last year.
In the fiscal year 2012-13, it incurred a loss of Tk 6.0 billion, in 2011-12 Tk 5.4 billion, in 2010-2011 around Tk 2.0 billion, in 2009-10 Tk 800 million.