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SEC asks GP to raise share face value

Sarwar A Chowdhury
The stock market regulator has asked Grameenphone (GP) to convert its Tk 1 share to Tk 10, a decision that matches with the premier bourse’s policy of not listing any securities below the face value ofTk 10.
The desire for such conversion was conveyed to a GP delegation when it met last week the newly appointed chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission.
The 5 65 million or Tk 449 crore initial public offering (IPO) prospectus of the country's largest mobile phone operator
now awaits the SEC approval.
GP agreed with the proposed change in the face value of its shares, but it sought a formal request from the commission.
Contacted, GP Chief Executive Officer Oddvar Hesjedal said: "We arc positive towards making such a change, which is subject to a formal request from the SEC."
The attendees of the meeting with the capital market watch dog quoted GP officials as saying that if necessity arises, GP will raise its share face value to get listed on bourses.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange expressed its firmness in early
March not to list any securities with a face value ofTk 1.
The DSE had pointed out that retail investors often fail to evaluate a Tkl share wrongly, as they are used to dealing with shares with face values of Tk 10 and Tk 100.
"The wrong judgement of investors creates market volatility," the DSE president said.
The SEC also urged the GP to give details about the company's valuation and how the price of each share was discovered during pre-IPO or private placement.
Regarding the GP IPO floatation in two phases, it was dis-
cussed at the meeting that there is no need to float the IPO in such a way, as the market has the capacity to absorb the issue.
The market will not face any liquidity crisis or volatility because of the GP IPO. where Citigroup Global Markets Bangladesh is the issue manager.
GP's S 60 million pre-IPO has already been settled with some 50 local institutional investors with a value of Tk 7.50 per share including premium of Tk 6.50 each share.
In a presentation to the SEC on March 25, 2008, GP disclosed that it had a valuation of $ 3.75 billion (Tk 25,875 crore), which the regulator termed high. Later in June 2008, the company revised its valuation down to S 3.2 billion, which was accepted i by the SEC.
1 GP is the market leader among six mobile operators having 21 million customers, followed by Banglalink's 10.83 million and AKTEL's 8.76 million.
Norway's telecom giant Telenor owns 62 percent of Grameenphone, which was launched in 1997, with the rest 38 percent stake being held by local Grameen Telecom.
GP's operating profit jumped to 530 million Norwegian Kroner (NOK), or Tk 562.86 crore in the first three months of 2009, which was NOK 289 million up from the same period of 2008, according to Telenor's financial report posted on its website recently.
sarwar@thedailystar.net