DSE intensifies search for strategic partner

Mohammad Mufazzal | Published: August 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) will hold a big event by the end of this year -part of its plan to sell a quarter of its stakes to an international strategic partner, officials said.
The DSE event is also intended to find out an international strategic partner, which will sit on the 13-member board of the nation's prime bourse. Such a partner is required since the bourse became demutualised earlier of the year.
The officials said that local institutional investors and individuals will be invited along with foreign potential strategic partners to the planned programme in Dhaka.
"The marketing of choosing foreign strategic partners is going on abroad. We're in touch with interested foreign strategic investers who recently attended the conference held in Qatar," the DSE Managing Director Dr. Swapan Kumar Bala told the FE.
He said that they have made a list of strategic investors who will be invited to the programme.
As per the demutualisation scheme approved by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on September 26, 2013, the board of the exchange will comprise of 13 members.
The DSE board will consist of seven independent directors, five shareholder-directors, including one foreign strategic investor, and the chief executive officer, who will have voting rights.
Presently, the post of strategic partner remains vacant and it is running on 12 members.
"The job of modernising the DSE is also going on to attract the foreign strategic partners. The proposed automation of the trading platforms will go on live in December next," said Mr. Bala.
He said among the proposed new products, the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is likely to be introduced soon.
An EFT is a security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange. The ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold.
As per the demutualisation scheme approved by the securities regulator, the asset value of the premier bourse is Tk 42.00 billion and the paid-up capital is Tk 18.03 billion.
Each of the 250 DSE members is entitled to get more than 7.2 million ordinary shares of Tk 10 each.
The DSE shareholders primarily got 40 per cent of their stakes along with receiving TREC (trading rights entitlement certificate) certificates.
And the remaining 60 per cent of the shares were transferred to a block account and kept for the TREC holders, strategic investors and individuals.
Among the 60 per cent stakes, one or more foreign strategic partners will be able to purchase 25 per cent and local institutional investors and individuals will be able to purchase the remaining 35 per cent stakes.
"The job of selling the 35 per cent stakes will not be hard. But the big challenge is to sell the stakes kept for the institutional strategic partners," the DSE managing director added.