The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday approved South Bangla Agriculture & Commerce Bank Limited’s proposal to raise Tk 100 crore from the capital market through an initial public offering. A BSEC meeting, presided over by its chairman Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, approved the IPO proposal, said a BSEC press release. The bank will float 10 crore shares at an issue price of Tk 10 each. As per the bank’s IPO prospectus, the IPO proceeds will be used for enhancing the Tier 1 Capital Base of the bank. The bank would invest Tk 95.18 crore in government securities and use Tk 4.81 crore to bear IPO expenses from the IPO proceeds. The pre-IPO paid up capital of the bank is Tk 684.64 crore, the prospectus said. As per the entity’s audited financial statements for the year ended on September 30, 2020, the bank’s net asset value per share (without valuation) and five years’ weighted average earnings per share were Tk 13.18 and Tk 1.24 respectively. ICB Capital Management Limited is the issue manager of the company. The BSEC, however, has imposed a condition that the bank would not declare, approve or disburse any dividend before it is listed on the stock exchanges. SBAC Bank was incorporated on February 20, 2013 as a public limited company. It has 83 branches and 11 sub-branches across the country. The Bangladesh Bank in 2013 gave licences to nine banks, including SBAC Bank, on condition that the banks would be listed on the stock exchanges within three years of the start of their commercial operations. The other eight banks are Meghna Bank, Midland Bank, Modhumoti Bank, NRB Bank, NRB Global Bank, NRBC Bank, Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank) and Union Bank. So far, only NRBC Bank has complied with the licencing condition. On March 22, NRBC Bank made its debut on the stock exchanges after getting IPO approval from the BSEC on November 18, 2020. There are 60 scheduled banks operating in Bangladesh. Of them, 31 banks are listed on the stock exchanges and the banks hold around 18 per cent of the total market capitalisation. More about: