DBBL's foreign investor sells its entire shares
FE Report | Sunday, 3 November 2019
A foreign corporate sponsor of the Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL) has withdrawn its entire investment earlier made in the bank.
Officials familiar with the matter said the foreign sponsor withdrew its investment as per their investment strategy followed across the world.
Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V., one of the corporate sponsors, sold its entire holdings on Thursday.
According to a disclosure available on the website of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), a Netherlands-based development
finance company sold more than 4.69 million (46.9 lakh) shares of the DBBL at a price of Tk 68.60 each.
On Thursday, the foreign corporate sponsor expressed its intension to sell its entire holdings in the DBBL at the prevailing market price.
The entire holdings of Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. then were sold through the block market of the DSE.
The sale was executed in one transaction at an aggregate price of Tk 321.91 million, according to the DSE information.
Abul Kashem Md. Shirin, DBBL Managing Director & CEO, said their foreign corporate sponsor withdrew its investment in line with their investment strategy.
"The Netherlands Development Finance Company-FMO makes investments in different companies in their very early stage. It withdraws investment when the companies achieve their targets," Mr. Shirin said.
He said the FMO had invested in the bank in 1996.
"The sponsor earlier withdrew its greater portion of investment and kept a nominal amount of investment on our request," Mr. Shirin said.
He said the foreign sponsor finally withdrew its remaining holdings on Thursday.
The DBBL, presently an 'A' category company, was listed with the two local stock exchanges in 2001.
The company's sponsor-directors held 86.99 per cent shares, institutions 3.22 per cent and general public 9.78 per cent as of September 30 last.
The company's share price closed at Tk 71.90 each on Thursday on the premier bourse of the country.
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