Janata Bank IPO By January

Collection The Daily Star

Bangladesh's capital market is going to be more vibrant in three months with the entry of state-owned Janata Bank, the country's second biggest commercial bank after Sonali.

“The board of the bank approved draft prospectus last week. Now we will send it to the Securities and Exchange Commission for the final approval,” said Jahangir Mia, deputy managing director (DMD) of the bank.

The board has approved raising Tk 100 crore from the capital market through an initial public offering (IPO).

Janata with Tk 800 crore authorised capital will seek Tk 900 premium for each share valued at Tk 100 only considering the bank's asset, earnings and brand values.

“We expect this bank shares to be traded in the stock markets in January 2010 after meeting the SEC queries, ” Mia told The Daily Star yesterday.

Janata is the second state bank to be listed with the stock market, with Rupali Bank being the first one.

The capital market has been experiencing unprecedented growth rate. Since 2003, market capitalisation has increased by 15 times and reached $15 billion, an amount that is 20 percent of the country's GDP.

The recent trends also show the market's stability, despite global recession and equity market volatility. Analysts say the market has huge demand, but the supply is too little. Entry of more public sector companies will have a two-way change--- qualitative and quantitative, they say.

Janata Bank, a public limited company (PLC) since November 15, 2007, has a total asset of nearly Tk 25,000 crore. The main objective of transforming the bank into a PLC is to bring more efficiency and transparency.

Two other state-owned commercial banks -- Sonali and Agrani -- also became public limited companies at the same time with the same purpose. But Janata goes ahead in terms of offloading shares.

The bank's paid-up capital reached Tk 385 crore with issuing bonus shares worth Tk 116 crore very recently.

“The capital base of the bank will reach Tk 500 crore mark with issuing Tk 125 crore worth right shares soon,” said the DMD.

Janata, which was nationalised as per Bangladesh Bank (Nationalisation) Order 1972 immediately after the country's independence, has 849 branches, including four overseas branches in the United Arab Emirates.