The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pulack Ghatack

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has invited six interested buyers to discuss the pros and cons of buying the shares worth Tk 4.0 billion (US$ 58.22 million) of the troubled Oriental Bank Limited.

Six parties from home and abroad earlier submited expression of interests (EoI) to purchase shares of the troubled bank.

The central bank has already sent such invitation leters to the companies after scrutinising the EoIs on the basis of 'Fit and Proper Test' method of BB.

A commitee will be formed to evaluate the tender documents after receiving bids from the interested parties, sources in the central bank said.

The interested local parties, which have already submited their expression of interests (EoIs), have been given 10 working days from October 7 while foreign interested parties will also get the same number of working days from October 27 next to cross check the information.

The local parties are BRAC Bank Ltd, Summit Industrial and Mercantile Corporation (Pvt) Ltd and Domestic Investors Consortium, a forum comprising local commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions.

The foreign companies are the United Kingdom-based East Invest Private Equity Ltd, ICB Financial Group Holdings of Switzerland and Haton National Bank of Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh Bank earlier sought EoIs from strategic investors to sell Tk 4.0 billion Oriental shares. The bank has 30 branches with Tk 22.05 billion in assets and Tk 23.08 billion in deposits.

The BB floated the tender as part of its plan to recapitalise the embezzlement-ridden Oriental, which has been facing a moratorium following a Tk 5.96 billion financial scam by its former management The central bank offered management control to the new investors in its tender schedule.

Under the recapitalisation scheme, the bank's paid-up capital will be raised to Tk 7.0 billion, with Tk 4.0 billion from strategic investors and Tk 3.0 billion from depositors.

Bangladesh Bank took over Oriental Bank Ltd after dissolving its board of directors, as the bank faced severe financial crisis due to massive corruption and irregularities done by its past authorities.