Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The state-owned Sonali Bank Limited has submitted a proposal of Beximco Group to the central bank for restructuring another chunk of large outstanding loan worth BDT 10.75 billion, officials said.
Beximco, one of the largest business conglomerates in Bangladesh, has submitted this application for the restructuring the loan taken against its only one unit—Bangladesh Export-Import Company Limited.
Earlier, another state-owned bank, Janata Bank Limited, had sent another proposal of the Beximco Group to the central bank for restructuring BDT 18.49 billion worth of credits against its five units.
The Group will have to repay its short-term outstanding loans amounting to BDT 3.73 billion by June 2021 by 21 equal quarterly installments. The repayment period starts from June 2016.
Its long-term loans worth BDT 7.02 billion will be cleared by June 2027 by 45 equal quarterly installments, according to the proposal.
The bank will charge 10 per cent interest rate on both the short and long-term loans, it added.
The Beximco Group, which has a number of its units listed on the bourses, operates in textiles, pharmaceuticals, real estate, hospitality, marine food, commodities trading, information and communication technology (ICT), ceramics and aviation.
“We’ll send the proposal to inter-departmental committee of the central bank on Thursday to scrutinise the terms and conditions for the loan recast,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
The BB earlier formed a six-member inter-departmental committee to go through the terms and conditions, set by the central bank earlier, for restructuring loans properly.
He also said the central bank will take decision on the proposal after receiving the committee’s report.
Talking to BBN, a senior official of the Sonali Bank Limited said, they are working on a few more loan restructuring proposals for submission to the central bank.
The interested large borrowers will have to apply for recast of their loan portfolios by June 30 this year.
The BB earlier determined large borrowers by the size of their outstanding loan portfolios – BDT 5.0 billion being the baseline.
Earlier on January 29 last, the central bank issued a circular in this connection and asked the commercial banks to set up special cells for ensuring monitoring and supervision of the restructured loans.
The BB's board of directors approved the policy on January 27 last allowing such loan rescheduling only if the business entities are hit by global or domestic shocks.
BBN/SSR/AD