& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Tk l,000cr through IPOs despite slow markets

Sarwar A Chowdhury
Seventeen new securities went public on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 2014, roping in about Tk 1,000 crore through initial public offerings.
Most of them were low-cap companies, and some even presented false financial data in their prospectuses, which raised questions about the quality of the IPOs.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission suspended the IPO subscriptions of Khulna Printing and Packaging (KPP), and fined FAR Chemicals and Shah jibazar Power Company for fabricating information.
However, KPP later completed the process after a court order.
"Any company, large or small, is welcome to get listed on the market, provided that it has strong fundamentals. But in recent times, many companies got involved in irregularities before and after the IPO," said Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, a former chairman of BSEC.
The regulator should check the company's fundamentals before allowing an IPO, he said, as "Protecting investors' money is the primary concern."
He also suggested looking into the issues that keep big companies away from seeking stockmarket listings. "They are borrowing from banks, rather than using the capital market as an alternative source of finance."
The additional accountability that comes with a public listing might be a cause, but the IPO pricing policy is a major reason, he said. "We allow Tk 20 to Tk 30 premium to a small company with just five or six years' business history, and Tk 50 premium to a big company that has a good and much longer track record. Why would the bigger companies feel encouraged?" he asked.
"We should be very careful in allowing premium pricing for shares of small-cap companies, and not be so conservative in the case of bigger and fundamentally stronger companies."
However, the pricing of new securities in the secondary market was better than in the previous year, as the market was recovering from the downward trend since the 2011 crash.
DSEX, the key index of the premier bourse, gained over 13 percent to reach 4,823 points until Wednesday, the last trading day.
Md Moniruzzaman, managing director of 1DLC Investments, said the IPOs were oversubscribed manifold, as investors found them to be more lucrative for profit maximisation. "On trading debut, primary stocks can be sold at three to five times higher prices than the offer price. So, investors lunged for the IPOs.”
Many companies were listed at face value, despite their net asset value being higher, he said. "The IPO pricing raised questions about the companies' sustainability in the long run."
With inclusion of the new securities, 547 companies are now trading on the DSE. In 2013, 17 securities, 13 equity securities, and two mutual funds issued IPOs, raising Tk 1,213.40 crore from the public.