Press Release

CSE Members aware of modus operandi on DESCO share trading

Government should rush to offload profit making shares, says Mr. Nasir Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, First Vice President

Chittagong, June 14, 2006: Chittagong Stock Exchange for smoothly DESCO share trading on 18^th June at CSE, organized a awareness program for the members and their authorized representatives so that they can cope up with the new trading operation for DESCO. Mr. Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, First Vice President of CSE while inaugurating the program said, this is an unnecessary delayed by the Govt. to offload its profit making share to the public. Albeit DESCO is a timely initiative taken by the Government and in the near future we will see many Govt. shares that will be listed under the Direct Listing procedure. Mr. A B Siddique, Chief Executive Officer said, our market would be strengthen enough if more Govt. shares could come and list in CSE. Mr. Kamal Uddin Jalal, Deputy Manager Information Cell and Mr. Mortuza Alam, Deputy Manger, Surveillance Dept. elaborately discussed on salient features of DESCO and modus operandi of DESCO share trading while Ms. Sonia Hossain, Deputy Manager, Corporate Development discussed on Chittagong Stock Exchange (Direct Listing) Regulations 2006.  

DESCO has been listed in CSE on 7^th June, 2006 and will make its debut on the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on June 18. Information documents on DESCO had been published on the daily Ittefaq and Observer on 10^th June, 2006. Earlier, the government decided to offload 25 per cent stakes of the company in the capital market.

The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) on behalf of the DESCO, will offload shares on 18^th June, 2006 through its ICB Securities Trading Company Ltd. The first two days i.e. 18^th & 19^th June, 2006 DESCO trading will be held for two hours which starts from 10.00 a.m to 12.00 noon. Buyers can put their orders in the Pre-Opening Session (9.40 a.m to 9.55 a.m) and also in the Trading Session (10.00 to 12.00 noon). ICB Securities Trading Company will start offer for sale from 10.16 a.m. Settlement of trades for the above two days will be on spot basis. Orders for the same days can be placed only for a market lot or its multiple but not exceeding 250 shares. Shares exceeding 250 in a single order will not be entertained. Investors shall place buy order only for the first two days. Normal trading will start on the fourth day while there will be no trading for the DESCO on the third day.

The company will join the capital market by releasing around 3.2 million shares worth Tk 317.80 million. The face value of each share of DESCO is at Tk 100 and the market lot of the company’s shares is 50. 

As per Direct Listing Regulations, the company is required to offload at least 10% of existing shares within 30 working days from the date of listing. However the company has intended to offload 25% i.e 3,177,985 shares from its existing shares to the public. Out of this proposed offloading, 10% shares i.e 317,798 shares will be distributed to the directors and employees of DESCO as per Government decision. DESCO is the second company to be listed with the CSE under direct listing regulations.

The initiative of offloading the shares of DESCO is a part of the government's broader goal of development of the capital market. Credit Rating Information and Services Ltd (CRISL), a credit rating company, has rated the DESCO as “A+” in long term and “ST-2” in short term. The company’s shares will be traded in CSE under settlement category “A” and in demetiarilsed form.

As on 30^th June, 2005 the net asset value (NAV) per share of DESCO stood Tk. 149.33 while earning per share (EPS) in the financial year of 2004-5 was Tk. 42.51 as against Tk. 26.59 in 2003-4. During the last financial year 2004-5, the net profit after tax of DESCO was Tk. 540 million while operating profit was Tk. 883 million against its operating revenue of Tk. 5,476 million.

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AKM Shahroze Alam
Deputy Manager
Corporate Development
Cell: 01713 109910