Lafarge Surma Cement Limited has set target to get listed with the stock exchanges by December 22 next, officials of the company said.

The company last month received Tk 37 crore subscription from the locals and Tk 1.59 crore from the non resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) against its initial public offering of Tk 15 crore, including Tk 1.5 crore for the NRBs.

The distribution of share certificates and refund warrants were held from Tuesday to Thursday. About 90 per cent of the refund warrants and 85 per cent of the share certificates have already been distributed, the officials said.

The certificates and refund warrants were delivered within five days of the selection. According to Securities and Exchange Commission rules, refund warrant should be given within 28 days and share certificates within 90 days.

"Shareholders' signature verification will start from next Monday," an official of Lafarge Cement said yesterday.

Lafarge Surma Cement issued 89.39 lakh ordinary shares of Tk 100 each to collect Tk 89.39 crore. Tk 74.39 crore was raised from pre-

IPO placement with 74.39 lakh shares while 15 lakh shares were offered for general public to raise Tk 15 crore.

Lafarge factory is located at Chhatak of Sunamganj district. This large-scale cross-border project having its own quarry in Meghalaya state of India will transport limestone and shale to the cement plant through a 17-km conveyor belt.

The plant will manufacture high quality clinker to produce 1.2 million tonnes of cement per annum. Lafarge of France, the world's largest cement producer and Cementos Molins, a leading Spanish cement group, are the majority shareholders of this project.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) participated as 10 per cent shareholder each. Local Islam Group and Sinha Group are also sponsor shareholders of the company.

Apart from ADB and IFC, the project is financed by DEG-Deutsche Investitions, European Investment Bank and FMO of the Netherlands. Arab Bangladesh Bank Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank are also participating in the project with local loans.