Five entities sign share purchase agreement with Farmers Bank

Four state-owned banks and a financial institution have signed share purchase agreements with the Farmers Bank to inject new capital amounting to Tk 765 crore into the beleaguered bank.

Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali will inject Tk 165 crore each and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) will give Tk 55 crore as fresh equity in line with the government instruction.

The signing ceremony took place at the ICB's board room in the capital on Wednesday when managing directors of the six institutions were present along with the chairman of Farmers Bank.

The Famers Bank also reconstituted its board as the managing directors of Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali and ICB got directorship under the clauses of the latest agreement.

Besides, four private institutional directors and two independent directors were also appointed as board members of the problem-ridden bank.

“Today (Wednesday) the Farmers Bank Ltd begins a new era where public and private institutions join together in partnership to protect a national asset,” the new board stated in a joint statement.

“We are fully committed to protecting the interest of our honourable depositors and build a new compliant bank based on the pillars of good governance, prudent management and customer service.” Earlier this month, the central bank relaxed three articles of the Bank Companies Act 1991 to facilitate the purchase of shares of Farmers Bank.

The bank, approved on political consideration, has been facing an acute liquidity crisis since November last year as it disbursed more than half of its total outstanding loans of Tk 5,130 crore through malpractices, BB investigations found.