First company oversubscribed by 18 times

The first company on the SME board of the country's bourses has been oversubscribed by about 18 times. Nialco Alloys got approval to go public on the new board last month.

The company aims to raise Tk 7.5 crore from qualified investors by issuing 75 lakh shares at Tk 10 each.

In order to help the company meet its demand for long-term financing, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the country's first quality investors offering.

The planned Tk 7.50 crore offering was subscribed for by Tk 134.39 crore, which came from 309 eligible investors.

Subscription continued from May 16 to May 20.

The small-cap board, called the DSE SME, was rolled out on April 30 in 2019 with a view to facilitating small- and medium-sized enterprises to raise funds, which were shut out from the process before that for their lower turnover.

SMEs have been suffering from a financial shortage for many years, although these firms have a huge impact on the country's gross domestic product and employment generation.

With this backdrop, SMEs had repeatedly urged the BSEC to give a chance to raise funds from the stock market.