Syngenta wants to buy BCIC stake in its Bangladesh entity

Switzerland based agrochemicals and seeds producer Syngenta International AG has expressed the interest to purchase shares in its Bangladesh entity, held by Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), but received lukewarm response from the state-owned enterprise, officials said.
After making repeated abortive attempts with the BCIC, Syngenta International now turned to the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) through embassy of Switzerland in Dhaka, seeking a solution.
The MoC has convened a meeting next week to discuss the issue and review some other bilateral trade disputes between Bangladesh and Switzerland.
Presently, Syngenta International holds 60 per cent stake in Syngenta Bangladesh Limited and BCIC the rest 40 per cent.
According to a submission by the embassy, the Swiss company is interested to purchase the shares from the BCIC to bring additional foreign investment in Bangladesh. However, the BCIC is yet to respond to its desire.
The BCIC official concerned could not be contacted immediately for a comment.
Contacted over telephone, managing director of Syngenta Bangladesh Limited Sazzadul Hassan told the FE that he was not aware of the issue.
A senior BCIC official, seeking anonymity, said the corporation is not interested to handover its shares as the company is a profit making concern.
Meanwhile, the embassy of Switzerland in Dhaka denounced the Bangladesh government's decision to pursue the multinational companies (MNCs) for offloading their shares in the bourses.
"This is a worrying idea to oblige international companies offering their shares in the local stock exchanges," it said in a letter.
Presently, some 13 out of 55 MNCs have so far offloaded their shares in the local capital market.
"The multinational companies themselves should be able to decide whether or not they are interested to become publicly traded companies. Switzerland strongly hopes that the government of Bangladesh would give priority to a liberal understanding of the economy and leave it up to the companies as to whether or not they will get listed at the stock market," the embassy noted.
When contacted, a senior official at the Ministry of Finance said the government has long been pursuing MNCs to offload shares in the bourses to make Bangladesh share market vibrant.
He said Bangladesh share market lacks quality issues, which is a major barrier for bringing good investment. "Offloading shares of MNCs can attract quality investors here," he noted.

syful-islam@outlook.com