Phoenix Finance's loss rises fourfold in 2022, leading to no dividend

Phoenix Finance & Investments' losses increased fourfold year-on-year in 2022 due to higher provisioning and shrinking income from the ailing stock market.
The publicly traded non-bank financial institution suffered a loss of Tk 1.39 billion in 2022, according to a stock exchange filing on Sunday.
The company secured a profit of Tk 13 million in the first quarter of 2022. It has been in the red since the second quarter. However, the loss in the final quarter was Tk 1.13 billion, outstripping the aggregate loss in the previous two quarters.
The company endured losses for two consecutive years, amounting to Tk 1.73 billion. It declared no dividend for 2021 and 2022.
The company paid 12 per cent stock dividend in 2020 for the last time.
Against the backdrop of the poor financial performance, the company's stock has been stuck at the floor of Tk 16.30 since September last year.
Phoenix Finance continued to suffer an operating cash flow crisis in 2022.
It has reported net operating cash flow per share of Tk 1.14 in the negative for 2022, which was Tk 8.26 in the negative a year ago.
Company secretary Mohammad Sayduzzaman could not be reached for comments.
An executive of the company, requesting not to be named, said the company suffered losses mainly due to higher provision against loan/lease and advances and income drop from the stock market.
"The year 2022 was a challenging year," he said.
The NBFI had to keep 100 per cent provision against defaulted loans as per Bangladesh Bank's instructions.
The amount kept in provision for 2022 and the amount of non-performing loans of the company could not be known.
According to market analysts, the company's profit plummeted for the past two years due to irregularities and mismanagement in debt disbursements.
Currently, sponsors and directors of the company hold 30.51 per cent stake, whereas institutional investors have 23.63 per cent and general investors 45.86 per cent share in the company, as per the data available until the end of August this year.

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