16 directors move to raise shareholding
Sixteen sponsors and directors of 13 listed companies last week announced their plan to buy 47 lakh shares in their own firms.
However, a sponsor director of Apex Tannery Syed Manzur Elahi declared that he will receive 94,050 shares of the company from his wife Niloufer Manzur and 139,200 shares from his daughter Munize Manzur Khasru by way of gift outside the trading system of the premier bourse.
They made the announcements following a regulatory directive for directors to hold minimum 2 percent stakes in their own firms listed with the stock exchanges.
In separate postings on Dhaka Stock Exchange website, the sponsors and directors expressed their intention to buy shares at the existing market prices in 30 workdays.
According to DSE statistics released on December 13, as many as 1,491 directors of 200 listed companies have less than 2 percent stakes in respective firms.
It means half of the directors among the listed companies dumped a bulk of shares into the public market in the last couple of years.
On November 27, the DSE sought information from each listed firm on share holding by the company's sponsors, directors and promoters, and set the deadline by December 11.
Of the 232 listed equity firms, 14 companies are yet to submit information on their shareholding positions. The DSE did not incorporate the information of 19 companies in its database as those provided wrong information.
The stockmarket regulator on November 22 made it mandatory for sponsors, directors and promoters to individually hold at least 2 percent stakes in their own companies and jointly minimum 30 percent.
The SEC also set a six-month timeframe for them to acquire the rest of the amount.
After the SEC notification, Salman F Rhaman, sponsor director and deputy chairman of Beximco Group, was the first such director to come up with a declaration to buy shares from the secondary market.
On December 11, he declared his plan to buy five lakh shares of Beximco Ltd at the existing market price in 30 workdays.
Rahman, also sponsor director and vice-chairman of Beximco Pharmaceuticals, on the same day declared his intention to buy another five lakh shares of the firm at current market price in 30 workdays through the stock exchange.
According to DSE statistics, sponsors and directors of listed companies sold or transferred 10.27 crore shares so far in 2011, 10.30 crore shares in 2010 and 6.20 crore in 2009.
But they bought only 1.51 crore shares so far in 2011, 1.18 crore shares in 2010 and 57.75 lakh shares in 2009.
It is alleged that many sponsors and directors sold off shares when the secondary market was bullish, especially in 2009 and 2010. Even, some of them sold shares without any prior declaration, which was must in line with securities rules.
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