BSEC appoints auditor to assess Safko’s financial condition

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has restructured the board of Safko Spinning Mills and appointed a special auditor to look into its financial condition.

Rezaul Karim, a spokesperson of BSEC, confirmed the development to The Business Post.

He said that the regulator took the decision as the publicly traded company had been grappling with losses and failed to provide dividends to its shareholders.

Later, the BSEC restructured the board and appointed four independent directors, he added.

The members of the reconstituted board of directors are - SM Munir, a Supreme Court advocate; Mustafizur Rahman, a retired army person; Md Wali Ullah, former deputy managing director of Agrani Bank; and Sumon Das, a Dhaka University professor.

As per regulatory rules, the new board is not authorised to make any change in the company without the commission’s approval.

In addition, they are not allowed to provide personal guarantees for loans or any other liability.

The commission believes that the decision will protect the interests of investors as well as make the company financially stronger in the coming days, added the BSEC spokesperson.

The Safko Spinning Mills has been in losses for several years and failed to disburse dividends to the shareholders.

On May 30, the BSEC summoned its top officials to find out the reasons for non-payment of dividends and continued losses.

The textile company was listed on the capital market in 2010. From then until 2018, it disbursed only bonus shares. For 2015, the company did not pay any dividend to its investors.

Subsequently, in 2019 and 2020, the company deprived its shareholders of dividends, citing continuous losses.

But investors claimed that the data is inaccurate.

It is quite impossible to be at loss as both the manufacturing units of the company are now in operation, the said in a complaint submitted to the BSEC recently.