Wednesday, May 08, 2024
Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, the country’s largest private sector lender, witnessed record transactions worth Tk 524.8 crore of its shares on the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on Tuesday.
With this large-scale share trading, Islami Bank alone accounted for 98 per cent of the port city bourse’s total turnover of Tk 533 crore yesterday.
The hefty share transactions took place as Arabsas Travel & Tourist Agency, a Saudi investor of Islami Bank Bangladesh, sold its total shares from the Bangladeshi Shariah-compliant bank.
Before its departure, Arabsas was a director of Islami Bank with a shareholding of 9.99 per cent.
CSE also settled on green terrain Tuesday with its two major indices – the selected indices (CSCX), and the all-share price index (CASPI) – gaining 20.2 points and 35.4 points, respectively.
According to the CSE data, investors traded a total of 16.19 crore Islami Bank shares in five transactions worth Tk 524.8 crore on Tuesday. All shares were traded at Tk 32.30 each.
Meanwhile, only 258 Islami Bank shares were traded on the day on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
In the last month, Islami Bank Bangladesh informed shareholders about a big shuffle in its board of directors, which consists of the bank’s shareholding report of sponsors and directors for the month of July 2023.
Musaid Abdullah A Al-Rajhi, a shareholder under Arabsas Travel & Tourist Agency, withdrew his directorship from the bank.
As per the latest report, the shareholding of sponsors or directors increased from 41.90 per cent in June to 42.98 per cent in July this year.
The private sector lender also informed that Abu Sayeed Mohammad Quasem, nominated by Armada Spinning Mills Ltd, was appointed as a shareholder director in place of Prof Nazmul Hassan.
The bank further informed that Showkat Hossain, nominated by Kingsway Endeavors Ltd, was appointed as a shareholder director. It also informed that Jamal Mostafa Chowdhury, nominated by Uniglobe Business Resources Ltd, was appointed as a shareholder director.
Islami Bank Bangladesh witnessed a massive change in its board and management from late 2016. The board chairman, managing director, and a number of other directors, had been replaced during that period.
The bank reported a 1.42 per cent increase in profits in the January–June half of 2023. During this period, the bank's consolidated net profits stood at Tk 342.92 crore, compared to Tk 338.09 crore year-on-year.
In the same period, its consolidated earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk 2.13, compared to Tk 2.10 in the same period in 2022.
The bank was established in March 1983 and got listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange Ltd in 1985. With an authorised capital of Tk 2,000 crore, the bank has a paid-up capital base of Tk 1,609 crore, with Tk 160 crore in securities.
The state-run Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) recently sold off all of its holdings from Islami Bank Bangladesh.
ICB, one of the bank’s major local shareholders, also withdrew the directorship of Abu Taher Mohammad Ahmedur Rahman as their representative on the IBBL board. The move was approved by the bank’s board in its 322nd meeting held on May 31.
Besides, four Middle East-based sponsors—Bahrain Islamic Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Kuwait Finance House, and Dubai Islamic Bank — sold off or reduced their holdings in the bank since 2015.
In 2022, IBBL generated an operating profit of Tk 2,124 crore with a 28.35 per cent growth, and the net profit stood at Tk 592 crore, registering a 27.68 per cent growth.
Ahsanul Alam, son of S Alam Group Chairman Saiful Alam Masood, had previously applied to Bangladesh Bank to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) to be a director of Islami Bank.
Its sponsor-directors owned 42.98 per cent of the company’s total shares, while institutional investors held 13.58 per cent, foreign investors 34.49 per cent, and the public 8.95 per cent till July 31 this year, according to DSE data.
