Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Grameenphone (GP), the country’s leading mobile phone operator, will revise its initial public offering (IPO) on the back of ‘very poor response from both foreign and local investors’ as well as non-availability of tax rebate from the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
“Currently GP is working on the necessary documents and audited financial statements in order to comply with the SEC requirements and the process will take time until mid-November,” Director, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs of the GP Khalid Hasan was quoted by the Financial Express, the country’s lone financial daily, as saying.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) held a meeting on Monday on the fate of the GP IPO.
The GP has also begun reimbursement of the money deposited earlier by the officials of the company against the subscription of the primary shares, the newspaper reported quoting sources concerned.
The pre-IPO placement offer received very poor response, market insiders said told the newspaper. A financial institution quoted only BDT 3.00 per share against BDT 11.58 as asked by the GP.
Moreover, the NBR has denied a 10 per cent tax benefits to the GP following its pre-IPO placement, compelling the largest cell phone company to revise its IPO.
The NBR cuts corporate taxes of a company by ten per cent if goes public, but it is not applicable to the companies which raise money through pre-IPO placement.
The largest cell phone operator filed its IPO application with the SEC valuing the company at $3.00 billion, the largest in the country.
In its applications, it had planned to raise $150 million in a pre-IPO placement with international and local investors and a further $150 million form country’s stock markets.
Norway-based Telenor owns 62 per cent of GP, while Grameen Telecom holds the rest 38 per cent stake.
BBN/SS/SI/AD-28October08-10:42 AM (BST)
