IPO subscription of BNIC postponed

The securities regulator Monday postponed the public subscription of Bangladesh National Insurance Company (BNIC), officials said.
The decision was taken at a commission meeting held at the office of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
At Monday's meeting, the regulator also approved an 'Auditors Panel' comprising 35 firms for the companies listed with the stock exchanges.
The listed companies will have to conduct their auditing job by appointing auditors from the panel formed by the securities regulator.
The BSEC's approval to 'Auditors Panel' will come into effect from August 1 next. The regulator will publish the list of auditors on its website soon.
The public subscription of the BNIC was supposed to be started from today (Tuesday).
The securities regulator earlier approved the company's IPO (initial public offering) proposal to raise a fund worth Tk 177 million from public.
The regulator postponed the company's public subscription following the allegations raised by the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA).
The IDRA said that the BNIC has allegedly changed its share-holding ratio without taking prior approval from its regulatory body.
In another development, BSEC Monday extended the timeframe of suspension of effectiveness of the section 3 (5) of margin rules until December 31, 2015 from existing deadline which will end on June 30.
According to the section 3 (5) of the Margin Rules, 1999, whenever the equity in a client's margin account falls below 150 per cent of the debit balance, the member shall request the client to provide additional margin to bring the equity to not less than 150 per cent.
The BSEC has also approved Tk 5.0 billion Second Subordinate Bond to be issued by United Commercial Bank (UCB). The tenure of the UCB's bond will be seven years.  
The BSEC also relaxed provisioning method for the mutual funds to offset their losses from investment in other MFs.
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