MJL to double stakes in Prime Bank

MJL Bangladesh, one of the nation's leading lubricants companies, is going to buy 2.20 crore shares of Prime Bank in order to increase its stake in the lender.

At the current market price, the shares will cost Tk 48 crore.

MJL Bangladesh, now a corporate shareholder of Prime Bank, wants to buy the shares at the prevailing market price through the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) within 30 working days, the lender said in a disclosure on the DSE website yesterday.

Once the purchase is completed, MJL's stake in Prime Bank, one of the leading private commercial banks in Bangladesh, will stand at 4 percent, according to officials

At present, the company holds a stake of around 2 percent.

"We are investing in the bank with the expectation that it will make good profits and we will get a good return," said Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of MJL Bangladesh.

The disclosure by MJL Bangladesh comes just two days after Prime Bank reported a 20 percent year-on-year rise in profits, to Tk 480 crore, in 2023.

The bank also recommended a 17.50 percent cash dividend for its shareholders for 2023.

Prime Bank has over 113.22 crore outstanding shares, each with a face value of Tk 10.

Officials said MJL Bangladesh, a joint venture between East Coast Group's subsidiary EC Securities and state-owned Jamuna Oil Company, began to purchase shares of Prime Bank in the second half of last year.

Prime Bank shares gained 0.22 percent to reach Tk 22 on the DSE yesterday while MJL Bangladesh advanced 0.60 percent to Tk 83.5 in the market, which closed on a downbeat note for a third consecutive day.