BIFC shares hit a year high, zoom 55%  

Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company Ltd (BIFC) shares gained for the eighth straight trading day before falling more than 1 per cent on Tuesday on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The stock was quoted at its one-year high level, having rallied 55 per cent in the past eight trading sessions, rallying 55 per cent at Tk 9.6.

The non-banking financial institution also witnessed higher share transactions during the period.

As many as 14.55 lakh shares of the company were traded on July 24, over 11 lakh shares on July 18, same number of shares on July 19 and 7 lakh shares on August 18, 2021.

However, the company declared no dividend for 2019. The company’s earnings per share (EPS) was negative Tk 12.20 and net asset value (NAV) negative Tk 94.27 in the year.

In response to a query about soaring share price of BIFC, Company Secretary Md Ahsan Ullah said, “I don’t know the reason.” According to the order of a court, high-level persons were given responsibility to improve the financial health of the ailing institution.

BIFC is one of the four financial institutions from where Prashant Kumar Halder alias PK Halder embezzled thousands of crores of taka.

According to Bangladesh Bank, BIFC is overwhelmed with default loans. As of June last year, it disbursed Tk 814.04 crore as loans. Of the figure, Tk 774.12 crore or more than 95% was defaulted.

Since 2018, the company has not published any financial report on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) website, keeping the shareholders in the dark about its current situation.

After PK Halder’s arrest in India last May, investors became interested in the company’s shares.