Need for improving governance of PLCs
Friday, 27 July 2007
Mahbubur Rahman
SHINEPUKUR Holdings Limited, a public limited company, raised share capital more than a decade back by selling one share at Taka 110 but this share is hardly worth Tk 20 in the share market. Shinepukur did not pay any dividend for years at a stretch though this public limited company(PLC) is a real estate undertaking managed by the Beximco group, the largest corporate management enterprise of the country. When land prices of Dhaka and around have increased ten fold, the value of shareholders' investments in it have lost by more than eighty per cent of the original value thereof in a decade. It is quite natural to think that Shinepukur bosses have diverted shareholders' money elsewhere.
As an investor this scribe feels that the top bosses of Shinepukur management deserve sure punishments when the government is keen about controlling and curbing corruption.
In our school days, we read how David Copperfield was punished by a placard being hung around his neck with the words: "Take care. He bites."
In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Shylock, the Jew, demanded a pound of flesh since the borrower could not pay the money in time as agreed while taking the loan.
In Rabi Thakur's Kabuliwallah, the Rahamat Kabuliwallah committed an act of stabbing beforehand, leading to his jail sentence.
Under the above circumstances, what should be the punishment to Shinepukur top brasses?
There are many PLCs which have cheated share holders, the primary shareholders, by not declaring dividends for years and even many do not arrange annual general meetings. Should not the Finance Adviser, former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, do something in real terms?
How can the capital market be developed even with funding supports of the multilateral capital donors under such circumstances? How will privatisation help when a number of PLCs are being run with poor performances?
Should we not punish those 'Moguls' of PLCs like as it was done in the USA after the collapse of Enron for reasons of fraud, corruption, bribe, kickbacks, non-transparent transactions etc.? Let the caretaker government do something in regulating corruption and earn trust of the investors in PLCs.
SHINEPUKUR Holdings Limited, a public limited company, raised share capital more than a decade back by selling one share at Taka 110 but this share is hardly worth Tk 20 in the share market. Shinepukur did not pay any dividend for years at a stretch though this public limited company(PLC) is a real estate undertaking managed by the Beximco group, the largest corporate management enterprise of the country. When land prices of Dhaka and around have increased ten fold, the value of shareholders' investments in it have lost by more than eighty per cent of the original value thereof in a decade. It is quite natural to think that Shinepukur bosses have diverted shareholders' money elsewhere.
As an investor this scribe feels that the top bosses of Shinepukur management deserve sure punishments when the government is keen about controlling and curbing corruption.
In our school days, we read how David Copperfield was punished by a placard being hung around his neck with the words: "Take care. He bites."
In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Shylock, the Jew, demanded a pound of flesh since the borrower could not pay the money in time as agreed while taking the loan.
In Rabi Thakur's Kabuliwallah, the Rahamat Kabuliwallah committed an act of stabbing beforehand, leading to his jail sentence.
Under the above circumstances, what should be the punishment to Shinepukur top brasses?
There are many PLCs which have cheated share holders, the primary shareholders, by not declaring dividends for years and even many do not arrange annual general meetings. Should not the Finance Adviser, former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, do something in real terms?
How can the capital market be developed even with funding supports of the multilateral capital donors under such circumstances? How will privatisation help when a number of PLCs are being run with poor performances?
Should we not punish those 'Moguls' of PLCs like as it was done in the USA after the collapse of Enron for reasons of fraud, corruption, bribe, kickbacks, non-transparent transactions etc.? Let the caretaker government do something in regulating corruption and earn trust of the investors in PLCs.