Four Square Pharma directors to buy 900,000 shares

Four directors of the country's largest drug maker Square Pharma today said they wanted to buy 900,000 shares of the company at prevailing market prices, indicating that sponsors have confidence over long-term prospect of the company.

They are Square Pharma's Chairman Samuel S Chowdhury, Vice Chairman Ratna Patra, Managing Director Tapan Chowdhury and Director Anjan Chowdhury, according to a disclosure on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

Each of the directors of the board wanted to buy 225,000 shares of Square at prevailing market price through DSE within April 28 this year, according to the disclosure.

Shares of Square Pharma inched up 2.06 per cent to Tk 222.90 today at the DSE.

The pharma company has 886,451,011 outstanding shares, according to DSE data.

Shares of Square Pharma, a blue chip stock, touched Tk 248.1 on September 9 last year.

Later prices began to fall to touch at Tk 210.9 on March 8 this year. Square Pharma rebounded gradually since then.

As of February 28, sponsors or directors held 34.57 per cent shares of the pharma company and the ratio has remained the same since June 30 last year.

By this time, foreign investors and public shareholders reduced their stakes while institutional shareholders increased shares.

Mohammad Emran Hasan, chief executive officer of Shanta Asset Management, said when directors or sponsors showed interest to buy shares of their company, it indicates that they have confidence on the prospect of the firm.

The purchase desire shows that the sponsors think the shares of the company are undervalued, he added.

With zero bank loan, Square Pharma posted 13.80 per cent year-on-year growth in its net profit to Tk 1,474 crore in 2020-21 financial year, according to the company.