Sabinco to shake off its losing concerns
The Saudi-Bangladesh joint venture finance company, Sabinco, has decided to sell four of its industrial units to stem further losses, officials said.
“We have wasted a lot of money in the last 20 years and now we should quit running these organisations,” Sahirul Hassan, managing director of Sabinco, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Saudi-Bangla Fish Feed Ltd, Bangladesh's first fish and poultry supporting venture, is one of the four enterprises being folded up.
“We created the first feed mill in the country, now there are around 350 such mills. We are not competent enough to run this mill,” said Hassan.
Sabinco has floated tenders to sell S&M Shrimp Culture Ltd in Khulna, Bangladesh Cat Fish Ltd in Mymensingh and Gazi Fish Ltd in Khulna.
Sabinco (Saudi Arabia-Bangladesh Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company) is a 50-50 partnership between the Bangladesh and Saudi governments.
The company has invested upwards of Tk 50 crore in the ventures -- but they failed to recoup the amount.
“We are an investment company. We tried to run these enterprises by appointing operators, but they pilfered and made these losing concerns,” said Hassan.
Sabinco promoted a large number of medium- and large-scale industrial projects in the manufacturing, agricultural and infrastructure sectors, some of which were first of their kind in Bangladesh.
Its current portfolio includes investment in telecom, pharma-ceuticals and power sectors.
Sabinco's net profit after tax in 2011 stood at Tk 40.85 crore, up from the previous year's Tk 27.59 crore, according to its financial statement.
Comments