Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has approved the initial public offering prospectus of a BDT 1.0 billion closed-end mutual fund.
Half of the fund or BDT 500 million will be raised from general investors through IPO. Of the amount, BDT 400 million will be kept for general investors, including 20% quota for affected retail investors, BDT 50 million  for non-resident Bangladeshis and BDT 50 million for other mutual funds, the BSEC said in a statement on Tuesday. 
The face value of each unit of the fund, ICB AMCL Sonali Bank Limited 1st Mutual Fund, will be BDT 10.
ICB Asset Management Company is the issue manager of the mutual fund.
A mutual fund is a professionally managed collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors and invests them in stocks, bonds and short-term money market instruments.
Presently, 41 listed closed-end mutual funds trade on the stock market.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the BSEC allowed the stock dealers and brokers to keep provisioning against unrealized losses from December 2012 to December 2103 in five quarters at 20 percent each.
The regulator also decided to give the same facility to the merchant bankers for the unrealized share credit that they provided to their clients. A notice will be issued to this effect soon.
 
BBN/SSR/AD-20Feb13-10:48 am (BST)