The government has issued a fresh reminder asking the state-owned enterprises (SoEs) concerned to offload their shares in the capital market without further delay, officials said.
They said the Ministry of Finance reminded the relevant SoEs of the earlier directive on putting their shares on sale. But the planned share offloading by the SoEs has yet to make any progress.
Competent sources said the latest reminder has come following the lukewarm attitude of a section of SoEs to the MoF directive to offload their shares in the capital market.
"The whole process relating to the offloading of shares of SoEs seems to be stuck-up for no reasons," an ICB Capital Management Official said.
"It is not possible to offload shares of the SoEs over the next six months in the share market," he added.
"We sat in a meeting with the chiefs of the SoEs and other stakeholders to review the progress regarding offloading of their shares in May last," a senior MoF official told the FE.
The meeting decided the month of December next as the deadline for offloading shares, he said.
"It seems that the SoEs concerned will miss the timeframe for floatation of their shares in the capital market. One-month time remains to be too short a period to complete the process," he added. Â
Earlier this month, the MoF reminded the SoEs of the need for expediting the process of offloading shares. The ministry also sent a checklist to all the SoEs, asking them to inform about their overall position on the share offloading, sources concerned said.
In June last, the ministry had asked the SoEs to complete their process of coming onto the share market. Â
The government authorities concerned are working to accelerate the offloading of shares, chief executive officer of the ICB Capital Management Md. Moshiur Rahman told the FE Monday.
"We all the authorities concerned also are relentlessly communicating with the SoEs concerned to complete their necessary preparations for offloading shares," he added.
Ten out of 27 SoEs have offloaded their shares until now, according to the MoF sources.
Necessary documents have already been submitted for one SoE to Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for offloading the shares under direct-listing method. Another SoE is likely to apply to the DSE soon.
On the other hand, some 14 SoEs have started preliminary work on share offloading. Â
The activities relating to offloading shares of Ruposhi Bangla Hotel (Sheraton Hotel) would remain suspended until the company's branding process was completed, sources said.
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