Five Shariah-based banks, which has been merged into Sammilito Islami Bank PLC, have been asked to declare the shares of their shareholders as zero, as the net asset value of those shares is negative.
The central bank sent a letter in this regard today to the five banks: First Security Islami, Social Islami, Global Islami, Union, and EXIM.
The five lenders were asked to declare all of their shares as zero, and the decision was taken under the Bank Resolution Ordinance 2025, said Areif Hossain Khan, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank.
An assessment showed that the share value of those five banks was negative, he said, adding that, considering this, the shareholders’ shares have been written down to zero.
In November this year, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur announced that shareholders of the five banks would not receive any stake in the new bank, as the net asset value per share was already negative by Tk 350 to Tk 420.
“So, the central bank is not taking them into consideration, as they hold zero liability,” Mansur said. “No shareholder of the merged banks will get anything.”
Shareholders of these troubled lenders have lost hundreds of crores due to this initiative.
Their total loss amounts to around Tk 4,500 crore, representing the face value of the stocks — the value assigned when the shares were issued.
At market value, the loss is around Tk 1,022 crore, as the shares had been trading well below their face value.
Following the merger order by Bangladesh Bank, the Dhaka and Chattogram stock exchanges suspended trading of the bank shares last month.
On November 30, the banking regulator granted the final licence to Sammilito Islami Bank, created through the merger of the five, making it the country’s largest state-owned Shariah-based lender.
The central bank said the approval is part of a broader banking sector reform programme launched in September 2024 to restore governance, ensure accountability, and bring discipline back to the financial system.
The authorised capital of the merged bank will be Tk 40,000 crore (each share of Tk 10, totalling 4,000 crore shares).
However, the paid-up capital of the bank will be Tk 35,000 crore.
Of this, Tk 20,000 crore has already been given by the government, designated as Class-A shareholders, according to the draft notification of the finance ministry.
Another Tk 7,500 crore will come from the permanent deposits of other depositors in the transferring banks and financial institutions, converted specially. They will be designated as Class-B shareholders.
The remaining Tk 7,500 crore will come from the deposits of other institutional depositors, excluding banks, financial institutions and multinational companies, converted specially. They will be designated as Class-C shareholders.
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/five-merged-banks-asked-declare-zero-shares-4063966
