Grameenphone (GP), Bangladesh’s largest telecom operator and the company with the biggest market capitalisation, dominated the transaction chart at Dhaka Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the total market turnover plunged by Tk 288 crore and ended at Tk 519 crore. Among them, the shares of Grameenphone, which came to the top of the transaction, were traded for more than Tk 53 crore — 10.21 per cent of the total turnover.
However, the multinational company’s share price fell by 2.96 per cent to Tk 344.30 at DSE. Its price per share was Tk 247.2 on August 4, before the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in a mass uprising on August 5.
Afterwards, the telecom operator’s share price and turnover increased. GP’s shareholding structure comprises mainly two sponsor shareholders, namely Telenor Mobile Communications AS (55.80 per cent) and Grameen Telecom (34.20 per cent).
The rest of the 10 per cent shareholding includes the general public and other institutions. Grameen Telecom, which owns 34.20 per cent of the shares of GP, is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh established by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who took charge as the chief adviser of the Interim Government of Bangladesh on August 8. GP also registered higher revenue in the April-June quarter of 2024 but its profit dropped mainly due to higher tax expenses.
The board of the company, however, recommended a 160 per cent interim cash dividend to be paid out in the quarter. GP’s revenue rose around 6 per cent year-on-year to Tk 4,223 crore in the second quarter of 2024, according to the financial report.
