Home ›› 08 Sep 2021 ›› Front
Jamuna Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, has announced that it would not invest in Evaly considering the present condition of the controversial e-commerce platform.
Jamuna Group Director (Commercial) ABM Shamsul Hasan confirmed the matter to The Business Post on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Jamuna Group Director for Marketing, Sales and Operations Mohammed Alamgir Alam posted an “urgent public notice” in his Facebook account over the investment issue. In the notice, he said the group is unwilling to risk its hard-earned money, reputation, talent and capabilities by making an imprudent decision to invest crores of taka in any business sector without thorough review.
“The Jamuna Group did not take any responsibility in the past for any internal affairs of any other company and will not do so in the future as well,” the notice added.
On September 5, Alam made another post on the social media citing his personal money in Evaly is also in uncertainty.
Earlier on August 27, the conglomerate said it would announce their decision on their proposed investment in Evaly after conducting an audit of the e-commerce platform.
Alam told The Business Post that the audit would determine the debts of Evaly to its customers and suppliers.
He also said that as the audit was not completed yet and the final report was yet reached the group, they were not ready to issue an official statement regarding their investment in Evaly.
On July 27, Evaly announced that the Jamuna Group would invest Tk 1,000 crore in Evaly, with an initial disbursement of Tk 200 crore.
Evaly Managing Director Mohammad Russell made the announcement after claiming that the e-commerce platform has already finalised an agreement with the conglomerate in this regard.
Evaly’s liabilities to customers and products suppliers increased from Tk 379 crore to Tk 517 crore in just a year.
The company’s financial statement submitted to the Commerce Ministry showed its total liabilities jumped by Tk 540 crore in just two years.
Previously, a Dhaka court barred Evaly’s MD Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, the company’s chairman, from travelling abroad amid an ongoing investigation into embezzlement charges against them.
The ACC officials on July 8 sent a letter to the Special Branch of police to ask immigration police to impose a travel ban against Rassel and Shamima over alleged embezzlement of Tk 338 crore.
Evaly offices remain closed since the ACC began investigation into the charges. Customers claimed no one was answering the hotlines.
The commission on July 8 formed a two-member probe panel after receiving a Bangladesh Bank report, which says Evaly accepted Tk 214 crore in advance payment from customers and owed the merchants an additional Tk 190 crore. This totalled Tk 404 crore to be in Evaly’s possession, but this non-investing e-commerce company has only Tk 65.18 crore in assets.
The central bank also expressed concern about the amount of Evaly’s liability to customers and merchants is likely to be higher as the company authorities did not allow the inspection team access their replica database.
