Home ›› 27 Dec 2022 ›› Stock
United Airways (BD) Limited, an inoperative private sector airline company, announced to hold annual general meetings (AGMs) after a long time of six years. The publicly traded company’s annual general meeting for 2022, as well as the pending AGMs for the last six years, would be held on January 3.
The company, which earlier received permission from the High Court to hold the AMGs, had tagged December 22 this year as record date, according to a Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) filing.
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), in March this year, asked the company to settle its pending AGMs for the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 and complete all audits.
Later in September, in a bid to look into the reasons for the private airlines’ collapse, the securities regulator formed an inquiry committee as a last-ditch attempt to restart its operations.
The five-member committee headed by BSEC Additional Director Ohidul Islam was been given 30 days to submit the probe report.
The commission also intended to conduct an investigation into the issues surrounding the suspension of operations, the reconstruction of the board of directors, resumption of operations, and the trading pattern of United Airways securities since its debut on the stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, the BSEC recently decided to appoint a special auditor at the company to conduct special audits for the period from 2012 to 2021.
Established in 2005, United Airways got listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in 2010. In February 2016, it ceased flight operations without any announcement amid mounting losses caused by massive irregularities and corruption by its directors.
To revive the airlines, the BSEC took a series of measures. Its board was also restructured on February 28, 2021, and later eight independent directors were appointed on March 4.
The board held its last meeting on August 11, where the new directors opined that United Airways can be revived only when the existing dues are waived.
In January last year, the company was sent to the over-the-counter (OTC) market due to its worst performance.
In September last year, BSEC Chairman Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam wrote to the ministry of civil aviation and tourism to exempt United Airways from paying Tk 355.36 crore in debt to the Civil Aviation Authority, to safeguard the investors’ interest.
United Airways that remained out of operation since 2015 owes the amount as different fees to the CAAB.
According to the BSEC, its net due to the CAAB was around Tk 56.87 crore, with a value-added tax of Tk 5.65 crore and an income tax of Tk 2 lakh.
The remaining Tk 292.81 crore was counted as a surcharge at an annual rate of 72 per cent. The debt was swelling every year due to the compound surcharge method. The BSEC said the airline company can’t pay the debt as it currently has nothing but a few unusable aircraft.
Against such a backdrop, it requested the government to waive the debt and make necessary arrangements for renewal of the airline’s Air Operator Certificate (AOC), to protect the interests of its 1.6 lakh investors.
