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Three state-run banks eye IPOs

Sonali expects Tk 900 premium on Tk 100 share

Sajjadur Rahman
The three newly-corporatised state-owned banks -- Sonali, Agrani and Janata -- have sought the finance ministry's approval to raise funds from the primary market to shore up their capital. The three banks face a total capital shortfall of Tk 6,500 crore.
A senior Sonali Bank official, who did not wish to be named, told The Daily Star, Tn the transitional period postcorporatisation, we have jointly proposed to tap the market to meet our capital needs." The finance ministry had earlier refused the three banks, corporatised in November 2007, to transfer their profits to make up for a shortfall in their capital.
SA Chowdhury, CEO, Sonali Bank, the largest commercial bank in the country with total assets of Tk35,000crore in September 2007, signed the joint proposal. Sonali has sought permission to raise Tk 1,000 crore by floating one crore shares, each with a face value of Tk 100, at a premium ofTk900.
In fact, according to the Supervision Report for July-September 2007 of Bangladesh Bank, the regulator for the bank-mg sector, Sonali Bank faces a huge shortfall of Tk 3,600 crore, Agrani and Janata banks' shortfall areTk 2,000 crore and Tk 900 crore, respectively.
Officials attributed the huge shortfall due to a continuous rise in accumulated losses and non-performing or classified loans. The accumulated losses of the three banks cumulatively stand at Tk 6,074 crore. The NPLs of Sonali, Janata and Agrani, as a percentage of their total advances, were 30.33
percent, 14.63 percent and 29.37 percent, respectively, at the end of September 2007.
State-owned banks not only face capital shortfall but also image and governance crisis due to unabated corruption and malpractices by a section of officials for years. Under the nationalised commercial banks reform programme, the government corporatised Sonali, Janata, and Agrani in November last year, and put the fourth bank Rupali on the privatisation track.
The government then asked these banks to submit a three-year transitional plan to over-come the capital shortfall crisis and improve their services to sustain the competition. State-owned banks have been continuously losing market share and accounted for 32.7 percent of the total industry assets in 2006 compared with 37.4 per-
cent in 2005.
In their earlier proposal to the finance ministry, the three banks proposed three options transfer of profit, offloading shares in the capital market and revaluation of assets to make up their capital shortfall. With the ministry refusing to let them transfer profits, the banks are left with just two options. “But we prefer raising funds from the market,” a senior Sonali Bank official said. "We will approach the SEC after the finance ministry approves the fund raising plan,” he added.
sajjad@thedailystar.net