Nikunja Building Allocation
BSEC to ask DSE to revoke decision or face asset devaluation
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to ask the Dhaka Stock Exchange today to revoke its decision to allocate building spaces of its Nikunja Bhaban, worth Tk 627 crore, to its members. If the bourse leaders refuse to accept the commission’s suggestion, the BSEC will inform the leaders that the valuation of the Bhaban would be deducted from the total assets of the bourse in the proposed demutualisation scheme, said commission sources.
The commission will hold a hearing on the demutualisation schemes, which would separate management from the ownership, submitted by the Dhaka and Chittagong bourses recently.
A controversy over the allocation of spaces of the DSE’s 13-storied building among its member-brokers, before the approval of demutualisation scheme has surfaced recently.
The bourse got Tk 25 crore from its members by allocating the spaces of the building worth Tk 637 crore. But the building was shown in the demutualisation scheme as the bourse’s asset, said commission sources.
Another irregularity was done by allocating the spaces without getting permission of its board and the BSEC, they said.
The same asset cannot belong to two persons or two entities at a time, they said. Any asset of the bourse cannot be sold or allocated to another person except tenancy allocation.
The commission today will give two options to the DSE — either it can revoke the allocation decision or can see its asset valuation deduction.
‘If the asset is devaluated, the number of shares of the member-brokers will come down. The net asset value of the bourse will also come down hitting the prospect of its initial public offering,’ said a source.
The bourse has to choose one option as the commission has a deadline of issuing directive of September 29 to the bourses.
Earlier on August 27, the BSEC asked the DSE to give details about its fixed assets, including the Nikunja building. The DSE later replied that it had allocated floor spaces among the members as tenancy allocation.
The DSE in its scheme showed Tk 4,200 crore as its asset value and Tk 1,803 crore as paid-up capital while the CSE showed Tk 634 crore as its paid-up capital.
The Demutualisation Act- 2013 was passed in the parliament on April 29 in a bid to separate the bourses’ management from its ownership.
-With New Age input
