Essential Drugs submits revised proposal to offload shares

The Essential Drugs Company Limited (EDCL) has submitted its revised proposal to offload shares under direct listing method after two years of getting approval to be listed with the bourses, officials said.
The officials of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) have said state-owned enterprise (SoE) EDCL recently submitted its revised prospectus to offload shares in the capital market.
They said submission of the EDCL's prospectus is the only significant development of the government's directive for offloading shares of the SoEs.
The officials said, after completing the asset re-valuation, the EDCL submitted its proposal on October 24, 2011 to raise funds from the capital market by offloading shares as per the previous rules of direct listing.
The company, however, sought exemption from offloading of 25 per cent shares and made a plea to offload only 10 per cent shares.
Later, on September 11, 2012 the company submitted the proposal of offloading 25 per cent shares as the securities regulator rejected its earlier plea.
And finally, the company got approval from the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on September 17, 2012 and October 8, 2012 respectively to be listed under direct listing method.
Afterwards, the company raised capital worth above Tk 592.2 million required for a new project launched in Khulna.
Then the DSE urged the EDCL to submit the revised prospectus mentioning the latest developments including the capital raised for new project.
The company later took more than 18 months to submit the revised prospectus to offload shares under the direct listing method.