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Bengal Biscuits Ltd, a popular biscuit brand in the domestic market, extended its footprint in the global market last year in hope of business growth, but made little progress so far.
Once listed, later delisted, and now listed on the DSE’s SME Board, fetched export receipts worth only Tk 33 lakh in the fiscal year 2021-22, and received an additional Tk 3 lakh as cash incentive on export earnings.
The company, according to its recently published FY22 annual financial report, logged Tk 56.55 crore worth of sales in the given fiscal against the sales of Tk 56.27 crore in the previous fiscal.
The biscuit maker posted Tk 0.54 crore in net profit in the fiscal year 2021-22 against Tk 0.62 crore in the previous fiscal.
Its profit in FY20 was Tk 0.18 crore.
Commenting on the slim export earnings, Mithun Sarkar, an executive director of Bengal Biscuits told The Business Post, “We entered the international market just a year back. There are many opportunities alongside many challenges there. But we are hopeful to secure a strong foothold in the global market.”
Due to the violation of securities laws, the company was delisted from the bourses in 2009 and subsequently was added to the currently defunct OTC market.
Later, on September 30, 2021, the company was added to the SME Board of the premier bourse, a platform comprising small-cap companies.
Although the company started exports, its cashbook did reflect little progress in its earnings.
The company authorities, however, blamed the Russia-Ukraine war due to its less-than-expected profit made in the last fiscal year because of the abnormal price hike in raw materials in the global market.
There has not been enough financial info on the company’s website or not the bourse’s website.
Companies listed on the SME platform, however, do not have the same obligation to publish quarterly financial reports as the companies listed on the main market do.
SME companies can publish financial reports once a year only.
A senior official of the company, in this regard, said as it is an SME Board-listed company it needs not disclose plenty of financial info.
Khondker Hasan Reza, company secretary of Bengal Biscuits Ltd told The Business Post, “Most of our capital was spent on buying raw materials and marketing products in the fiscal year 2021-22, that’s why we could not register a big amount of profit that year.”
But Hasan Reza expressed his hope to do better in the current fiscal year as their business was going better so far than that in the last fiscal year.
The company with only Tk 7.9 crore in paid-up capital had been lying on the OTC market of the bourses after its delisting in 2009.
According to the BSEC’s Public Issue Rules 2015, a company requires a minimum paid-up capital of Tk 30 crore to be listed on the main board.
So, there is little hope for the company to return to the main market.
The company officials said no small-cap company can multiply its paid-up capital so quickly.
Bengal Biscuits Limited is a sister concern of Excelsior Group, a leading business conglomerate with a footprint in pharmaceuticals, textiles, footwear, and many other sectors.
Incorporated in November 1980 as a private limited company, the company converted into a public limited company in 1994.
The company’s shares remained unchanged at Tk 82.30 per share on the SME trading floor of the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Sponsors and directors jointly had a 30.60 per cent stake in the company, while institutional investors owned 10.27 per cent, and the general public 59.13 per cent till Jun 30, 2022.
