The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh Bank (BB) is preparing a short-list of the potential buyers to sell shares worth Tk 4.0 billion (US$ US$58.22 million) of Oriental Bank Limited.

Six parties from home and abroad earlier submited expression of interests (EoI) to purchase shares of the troubled bank but only short-listed bidders will be contacted for taking part in the bidding process, sources in the central bank said. The short-list will be prepared after scrutinising the EoIs on the basis of 'Fit and Proper Test' method of BB.

BRAC Bank, Summit Group, a local business group, Domestic Investor Consortium, a forum comprising local commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions, the United Kingdom-based East Invest Private Equity Limited, ICB Financial Group Holdings of Switzerland and Haton National Bank of Sri Lanka have submited EoI.

The Oriental Bank that faced a severe financial crisis was taken over by the central bank, which dissolved the bank's board of directors, removed its managing director, and appointed an administrator to run the bank temporarily.

The bank started its operation on May 20, 1987 under the name of Al Baraka Bank Bangladesh Limited. It is now running its business through 30 branches across the country where a total of 713 employees are engaged at different levels.