Govt waiting to hear from Rupali buyer
Says finance adviser
Staff Correspondent
Finance and Planning Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday said the government is still waiting to hear from the prospective buyer of the state-owned Rupali Bank about the handover of the bank."The ball is not in our court," he said about handing over the bank to Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud. He was talking to reporters following a meeting with a delegation of Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA) at the planning ministry yesterday. Sources say during the rule of the immediate past BNP-Jamaat government the prince agreed to buy 67 percent shares of Ruplai Bank for $330 million. In February, the caretaker government approved a proposal to sell 26 percent more shares to the prince for $128 million, which would give him 93 percent ownership of the bank. The remaining seven percent shares were offloaded on the share market. However, the Saudi prince apparently stopped communicating with the government creating uncertainty over the bank's handing over to him. The prince's office did not make any official reply despite repeated attempts from the Privatisation Commission when the deadline for paying $458 million expired on May 31.
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