The New Nation - Internet Edition

CSE closes lower yesterday

UNB, Chittagong

Trading at Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) closed lower on yesterday with the losers dominating the gainers.

The CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) decreased by 0.33 per cent to close at 8583.72 points.

The CSE-30 Index, however, rose by 0.64 per cent to close at 7774.42 points.

A total of 141 issues were traded today. Of them, 45 gained, 92 declined and only four remained unchanged. Some 6,036,113 shares and debentures worth Tk 53.08 crore changed hands yesterday.

ICB declares record dividends on all funds

BUSINESS REPORT

Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) has declared dividends on its eight Mutual Funds and on the Unit Fund. The rates of dividends are 265 per cent for the First Mutual Fund, 75 per cent for Second, 65 per cent for Third, 60 per cent for Fourth, 45 per cent for Fifth, 30 per cent for Sixth, 30 per cent for Seventh and 25 per cent for Eighth Mutual Fund and Tk 20 per unit on Unit Fund for the year ended June 30, 2008.

These rates of dividends are higher than the dividends paid on the respective funds in 2006-07. The dividends were approved in a fund related meeting of the Board of Directors of the corporation held yesterday.

The rates of dividends for the year 2006-2007 were 240 per cent (190 per cent in cash and 50 per cent in stock for the First Mutual Fund, 62 per cent for Second, 56 per cent for Third, 52 per cent for Fourth, 34 per cent for Fifth, 23 per cent for Sixth, 22.50 per cent for Seventh and 18 per cent for Eighth Mutual Fund and Tk 13 per unit on Unit Fund).

During 2007-2008 the distributable profit of the First Mutual Fund was Tk 473.89 lac, Second Mutual Fund was Tk 149.69 lac, Third Mutual Fund was Tk 221.12 lac, Fourth Mutual Fund was Tk 216.20 lac, Fifth Mutual Fund was Tk 151.21 lac, Sixth Mutual Fund was Tk 306.69 lac, Seventh Mutual Fund was Tk 212.69 lac, Eighth Mutual Fund was Tk 212.99 lac and ICB Unit Fund was Tk 12,019 lac respectively.

The Board of Directors acknowledged with praise that prudent and meticulous management (of the portfolios of these funds enabled declaration of excellent dividend. The dividend performance is the manifestation of high degree of professionalism and expertise.

The Board of Directors expressed gratitude to the investors as well as to SEC and other concerned institutions for their unflinching support and guidance.

Prevention of money laundering: Pubali Bank officials urged to follow BB guidelines : Managing Director calls for increasing remittance business thru' better, prompt customer servi

BUSINESS REPORT

A workshop titled 'Money Laundering Prevention and Foreign Remittance' was held at the Pubali Bank Head Office organised by Pubali Bank Training Institute recently.

Managing Director of Pubali Bank Ltd Helal Ahmed Chowdhury was present as the chief guest at the workshop.

In a short speech, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury said that Money Laundering Prevention Act 2008 has been enacted to prevent the illegal and malafide transactions. Banks and financial institutions under the overall supervision of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) are implementing the above act.

He urged everyone to provide correct and complete information in relation to the opening of bank accounts, transfer of funds and identification of customers.

The Pubali Bank Managing Director further advised all officials to be meticulous in compliance of instructions of the Head Office, Bangladesh Bank and other regulatory bodies.

He also emphasized on increasing remittance business through better and prompt customer services and compliance.

Principal of the Training Institute Badruddin Ahmed was present at the workshop.

IBBL holds workshop on 'Compliance Issues'

A workshop on 'Compliance Issues' was held recently at Mohammad Younus Auditorium of Islami Bank Tower organised by International Banking Wing of Jslami Bank Bangladesh Limited.

Presided over by Md Habibur Rahman, Deputy Managing Director and Head of International Banking Wing of the bank the workshop was addressed, among others, by Rafi Ahmed Begh and Abdul Jalil, Executive Vice Presidents, KM Monirul Alam Al-Mamun, Vice President, AFM Kamal Uddin, Nessar Uddin Ahmed and Mahmudur Rahman, Assistant Vice Presidents. Sixty-five officials working in Foreign Exchange of Authorised Delar of Dhaka city took part in the workshop.

Md Habibur Rahman in his presidential speech emphasised the appropriate compliance of the instructions of Bangladesh Bank. He stressed upon collecting remittance and providing sincere service to expatriate clients.

He also upheld the importance of the augmenting of export business side by side import business.

TCB to import soybean, lentil before Ramadan

BUSINESS REPORT

State-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will import some essential commodities including 3,000 tonnes of refined soybean oil, by the end of the next month, to keep the retail market stable, officials said yesterday.

The items also include 3,000 tonnes of red lentil and 500 tonnes of onion.

"These items will be imported ahead of the holy month of Ramadan to keep the retail market stable," TCB chairman Ziaul Islam said. Ramadan begins in the first week of September.

Demands for these items, used mainly for some special foods for breaking the day-long fast, rise sharply during Ramadan in the country.

Earlier, TCB invited several tenders to import the commodities, but the responses were poor, he said.

"The response was poor, because the tender requirement was too small," said Fazlur Rahman, a leading importer in Bangladesh.

"Now we are trying to contact with the foreign exporters to encourage them to participate in the tenders," Islam said. "We will import those commodities through local importers, if international tenders fail to draw suitable responses," Islam said.

HSBC opens : Customer Service Center at Mirpur

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Limited Bangladesh formally inaugurated a Customer Service Center (CSC) at Mirpur in the city yesterday.

The occasion was marked by the presence of Sanjay Prakash, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bangladesh, Md Shafquat Hossain, Head of Personal Financial Services and Mustafizur R Khan, Head of Marketing and Communications.

This CSC will remain open 7 days a week with a Customer Service Officer which will enable customers to get information about the bank's products and services from 9:00am to 9:00pm, except for government holidays. This CSC also includes a 24-hour ATM machine for HSBC customers as well as to all VISA and VISA PLUS cardholders.

The Customer Service Centre will prove to be an effective way to deliver quality service to HSBC customers at Mirpur in the city.

City Bank opens CityBizness Centre

City Bank has recently opened its 1st CityBizness Centre at Motijheel C/A, Dhaka. The center was formally opened by DCCI President Hossain Khaled Saifullah.

CityBizness Centre will dedicatedly focus on SMEs of the economy with its all banking products and services to support them grow and move to the next level. In the opening programme of the centre K Mahmood Sattar, MD and CEO of the bank was also present and spoke.

Other high officials of the bank present on the day were Sohail RK Hussain, DMD (Business), Raihan Ul Ameen, DMD (Operation) and B Choudhury, Head of SME Banking.

CityBizness is City Bank's new line of business for serving the SMEs of the country. A number cluster loan products have been designed and launched on the same day of the opening of this centre. These loan products are--Shulov, Muldhan and Sheba. The cluster products of Shulov are for SMEs of manufacturing sub-sector. A manufacturing small enterprise of SME sector will have the option to access to all the required funded and non-funded credits available in Shulov to avail either one or all products according to the need to run the underlying business.

Similarly small enterprises in service and trade sub sectors will have required credits for their respective business support under Sheba and Muldhan cluster loan products.

The innovativeness and 1st of its kind in the market, in all these three products is that the SMEs will not have to move to many banks for their required loan negotiation. These products of CityBizness have opened up one window service concept to meet the funding need of the SME sector of the country. This is housed at the ground floor of DCCI Building located at 65-66 Motijheel CA.

Unilever Bangladesh sponsoring Brand Witz 2008 begins at IBA of DU today

BUSINESS REPORT

Inter Business School Marketing Competition, titled 'Brand Witz-2008' begins at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University (DU) today (Thursday).

IBA Communication Club (IBACC) is organising the event in order to create an opportunity for the business students to relate their theoretical concepts of marketing and branding with real life by using their creativity and innovation.

CLEAR, a prominent brand of Unilever Bangladesh Limited is the official sponsor of the event.

Addressing a press conference at the institute yesterday, Dr Muhammad Ziaul Haq Mamun, IBA Director said the key objective of the competition was to enhance a sense of social responsibility among students.

"The event will create a platform for interaction between business school students and senior business executives and marketing personnel under the same roof," he added.

IBACC moderator Prof Syed Munir Khasru and IBA Communication Club president Morshed-Ul-Arefin were present at the press conference.

Some 24 teams, each having three members, from business faculties of 15 top universities of the country will take part in the competition.

The universities are University of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar University, Khulna University, Chittagong University, Rajshahi University, American International University of Bangladesh, BRAC University, Eastern University, East West University, Independent University of Bangladesh, North South University, South East University, Stamford University, United International University and Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka. The teams will be given a case, which they will solve in an hour and present it before a panel of judges.

The members of the champion team will have an exposure of working with the brand team of Unilever Bangladesh for three months on part time basis.

A workshop for the event will be held at 2:00 pm today (Thursday) where the academics and experts will deliver their speeches on several topics.

Shama-E-Zaheer, Faculty, IBA will deliver speech on 'Business Case Solving,' Mushtaq Ahmed, CEO, Net Value will deliver speech on 'Basic Marketing Tools,' KSM Minhaz, Manager, Product Group will deliver speech on 'Building Brands Through IMC' and Muneer Ahmed, CEO, Unitrend will deliver his speech on 'Societal Marketing Process.'

The first round, semi round and the final round of the competition will be held respectively on August 1, 2 and 16.

Warid signs corporate deal with LG Butterfly

Warid Telecom, the fourth largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh, yesterday (Wednesday) signed an agreement with LG Butterfly Marketing Limited to provide complete telecommunication services under its corporate package.

Chairman and Managing Director of Butterfly Marketing Limited M A Mannan and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Warid Telecom Amyn Merchant signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations at the Corporate Head Office of Warid Telecom in the city.

General Managers of Warid Telecom Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, Ashraful H. Chowdhury and Mahboob Hossain and Director (Sales and Marketing) of Butterfly Mustafizur Rahman Shazid and DGM (admin) M M Ferdous were, among others, present during the signing ceremony.

Under the agreement, LG Butterfly Marketing Limited will enjoy customised tariff and value added services of the Warid Telecom which would keep the marketing company one step ahead of others in receiving telecommunication services and also reduce its telecommunication costs significantly.

Amyn Merchant thanked the LG Butterfly for choosing Warid telecom's services to meet its telecommunication needs. "We hope users in LG Butterfly would enjoy our high-quality services in a competitive price,' he said.

Since its commercial operation in Bangladesh in May 10, 2007, Warid Telecom, which invested about Tk 3500 crore to establish the state-of-art Next Generation Network (NGN), has acquired over 3.0 million subscribers through spreading its network to 64 districts. It also planned to invest over Tk 1700 crore within a year to improve its network and quality of services.