BSC outshines peers in India, Pakistan and Singapore

State-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) has fared better than its rivals in India, Pakistan and Singapore by outperforming businesses in the last fiscal year.

In the fiscal year 2020-21, the BSC’s net profit posted a rise of 26.26 per cent while Shipping Corporation of India (SCI)’s net profit was up 16.68 per cent, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) 21.30 per cent and Singapore Shipping Corporation (SSC) 19.69 per cent, according to the BSC’s latest annual report.

“The higher profit made by the BSC is inevitable as India itself has no shipping line. And Pakistan and Singapore are not a riverine country like Bangladesh,” Shams Navigation Proprietor Mehbub Kabir told The Business Post.

India had a shipping business before but the labour unrest hurt its shipping operations, he said.

The BSC bagged a net profit of Tk 72 crore in fiscal year 2020-21, which was Tk 41 crore in the previous year.

However, in terms of earnings per share (EPS), the BSC raced behind its peers. The BSC’s EPS was Tk 4.72 while SCI’s EPS stood at Tk 13.27, PNSC’s Tk 17.14 and SSC’s Tk 2.20, it said.

In 2011, the securities regulator BSEC approved BSC’s repeat public offer (RPO) proposal to raise over Tk 313 crore to purchase ships. After taking permission from the regulator, the company spent the fund in other areas. Of the figure, as many as Tk 59.35 crore was spent on constructing BSC Tower, and more than Tk 16 crore on purchasing ships from China, and the remaining over Tk 220 crore was left unused, according to the annual report.

In the last two months, its share price skyrocketed 143 per cent. Its share price was Tk 148.10 on February 6, 2022, a stellar increase from Tk 49.4 seen on December 23, 2021.

The company’s share price continued to soar after the news that BSC planned to buy six new ships.

In a query recently made by the DSE, the company said, “They have taken the decision to buy different types of six ships which are still under process. This decision has been taken in 2018. Every year since 2018, the shipping purchasing decision has been made public. This is not price-sensitive information.”

BSC owns seven ships and a number of oil tankers and also charters sea-going vessels from other operators. The vessels are used to carry ready-made garments and other export items, and also to import crude oil from Saudi Arabia and UAE.