Ring Shine to hold EGM on takeover issue

The board of directors of Ring Shine Textiles Limited (RSTL) has decided to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consider the proposed takeover of the company’s sponsor directors’ shares by Wise Star Textile Mills and its nominees.

The EGM will be held on June 20 next through a digital platform, the company said in a disclosure filed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Sunday.

Wise Star Textile Mills, a private company run by Queen South Textile, and its nominees is projected to acquire a 21.32 per cent stake in Ring Shine Textiles by purchasing the company’s 10.6 crore shares.

As per yesterday’s share price of Ring Shine Textiles, the purchase will cost Tk 104.5 core. Founded in 1997, Ring Shine Textiles Ltd raised Tk 150 crore from the market through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2019 aiming to purchase machinery and repay bank loans.

Ring Shine Textiles Ltd informed its shareholders on Tuesday that its board of directors accepted Sung Wey Min’s resignation from the post of its managing director.

On April 18 this year, The Business Post published a report titled ‘Ring Shine Textiles’ Tale of Laundering Tk 2,000 crore’. This staggering tale of gross irregularities came to light in a report, compiled by an inquiry committee and special auditor under the BSEC.

Brig Gen AHM Mokbul Hossain (retd) has been appointed as the company’s new managing director with effective from last Wednesday. He represents RSTL’s new investor– Wise Star Textile Mills Ltd. The decision came during Ring Shine’s 78th board meeting, held on Tuesday.

The Bangladesh Police – following a request from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) – also banned Ring Shine Textiles Ltd’s former managing director, Sung Wey Min, from traveling abroad.

This Indonesian citizen had allegedly laundered Tk 2,000 crore from Bangladesh in the last 22 years, utilizing a myriad of financial anomalies.

Documents show that between 1998 and 2020, RSTL’s management laundered $124 million, or nearly Tk 1,242 crore through telegraphic transfers (TT), moving funds from corporate to overseas accounts of the then managing director, sponsor directors, and parties unknown.

Besides utilising an illegal trick called over-invoicing, the RSTL also laundered Tk 845 crore in the name of procuring property, plant and equipment, and raw materials over five years that ended in June 2020.