PGCB share trading on bourses from today

Share trading of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), a state-owned power company, makes its debut on the country's both bourses simultaneously today.

PGCB has been listed on the bourses under the direct listing regulations and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) on behalf of the power company will start offloading shares today through its subsidiary, ICB Securities Trading Company Ltd.

The first two days -- today and tomorrow -- trading of PGCB shares will continue for two hours starting from 10:00am to 12:00 noon.

Prospective buyers can put their offer prices for buying shares in the first 15 minutes (10:00 am to 10:15 am) of the first day of trading and also in trading session (10:16 am to 12:00 noon).

Based on the offered price, ICB Securities Trading Company will start offer for sale from 10.16 am. Settlement of trades for the two days will be on the spot basis. Orders can be placed only for a market lot or multiple, but not exceeding 1000 shares.

Normal trading will start on the fourth day while there will be no trading for the PGCB on the third day.

Ten percent of the offloaded shares will be released within the 30 working days from the first trading date.

The company will join the stock exchanges by releasing 91,08,940 shares with a face value of Tk 100 each to raise capital of around Tk 91.09 crore from the capital market.

The company will put 86,53,493 shares for sale to general public/institutions at market price while it will keep 4,55,447 shares to be sold to the directors and employees of PGCB at face value.

Offloading of PGCB shares has been delayed as the High Court on June 18 issued a stay order on the operation of Direct Listing Regulations 2006 following a writ petition filed by an investor challenging the legality of newly introduced regulations.

The High Court on August 17 vacated the operation of the stay order removing the obstacle to offloading of PGCB shares on the bourses under direct listing.

Earlier, on May 14, the DSE, in principle, approved the applications of PGCB and the Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco), two state-owned entities, to be listed with the bourse under direct listing regulations.

Desco made its debut on the bourses on June 18 this year.