People's Leasing to resume trade on Sunday


FE REPORT | Published: March 07, 2024 23:52:06


People's Leasing to resume trade on Sunday


The scam-hit People's Leasing & Financial Services will resume share trading on March 10 (Sunday) after 56 months of suspension.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) took the decision after the company had ensured compliance with some security rules.
Before the suspension, the company was under 'Z' category and so trading will begin with the stock labelled as junk stock.
ATM Tariquzzaman, managing director of the DSE, said there was no embargo from the court on resumption of trade in the stock.
"The new board has also come up with some developments, including publication of financial statements," he added.
Following a court order, People's Leasing has recently published financial statements for 2019, 2020, and 2021 at once.
People's Leasing went into the red in 2018 and since then it continued to suffer losses.
Between 2018 and 2021, the company incurred losses amounting to Tk 1.58 billion-Tk 6.37 billion annually.
In July 2019, the Dhaka bourse suspended the trading in shares of People's Leasing due to the deterioration of its financial health and talk of a liquidation process.
The stock closed at Tk 3 per share the last time it traded.
Under the leadership of the new board, People's Leasing has been searching for new funds.
People's Leasing, which started operations in 1996, has been facing a wide range of financial scams since 2004, for which the Bangladesh Bank appointed an observer at the company in 2015.
The company was engulfed in trouble as Prashanta Kumar Halder, popularly known as PK Halder, swindled around Tk 35 billion from several non-bank financial institutions, including People's Leasing.
The central bank removed five directors from the NBFI's board in 2015 because of their alleged involvement in the embezzlement of Tk 3.58 billion.
The company's liquidation process began in April 2019 after its board informed the Bangladesh Bank about its inability to pay depositors back after maturity.
However, in July 2021, the High Court bestowed a lifeline on the struggling NBFI by reconstituting its board of directors, thus saving the company from being liquidated.
The board did not recommend any dividends to its shareholders for all these years as the company remained in the red.
The company never distributed cash dividends, and stock dividends were issued for the last time in 2014. It issued stock dividends between 10 per cent and 45 per cent in 2005-14.
As per the regulatory requirements, sponsor-directors of a listed company are required to hold at least 30 per cent shares of the paid-up capital.
The sponsor-directors of People's Leasing hold 23.21 per cent stake in the company as of October last year.

mufazzal.fe@gmail.com

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