Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-A three-day long institutional bidding for United Power Generation and Distribution Company’s shares has started under the book-building method, a modern pricing mechanism.
The bidding which started on Sunday will continue till 2:00pm Tuesday.
United Power is the first company to come under the modified book-building method after the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) had withdrawn the suspension on the method in 2011.
The company set to float 30 million ordinary shares for business expansion and repayment of its debt of BDT 10 each and indicative price at BDT 60 including premium of BDT 50 each.
Now, in the price discovery phase, bidders cannot quote 20 percent more or less than the indicative price, meaning they will have to offer a price between BDT 48 and BDT 72 for each share.
Amid wide criticism from every corner for its flaws, the securities regulator in January 2011 temporarily suspended the method that was largely blamed for the market debacle in late 2010 and later in September 2011 modified it taking views and opinions from stakeholders.
Since then the method has been struggling to take off, but recently some companies were preparing to go public using the method.
On February 4, BSEC primarily allowed United Power to go for an IPO under the book building method.
The earnings-per share of the power generation company was BDT 10.21 as of December 2012.
LankaBangla Investment is acting as the issue manager and ICB Capital Management as the IPO registrar
BBN/BB/AS-18May14-8:00pm (BST)
