FE Report

Lottery draw for share allotment of the country's largest issue Grameenphone was held on Wednesday at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.

The venue was abuzz with hundreds of aspirants, who gathered there early in the morning as the GP initial public offering (IPO) fired them up since its plan to go public.

Top mobile phone operator, Grameenphone, raised Tk 4.86 billion through the sale of 69.44 million shares to the public and the same amount by selling similar stakes to institutional investors such as banks, insurances and mutual funds.

The lottery result is available on GP, the country's mobile operators, website and websites of the country's twin bourses.

The management of the Bureau of Research, Testing and Consultation, the consultation wing of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) conducted the lottery.

Out of the total of 312,501 shares, local investors were allocated 277,757, a further 34,720 went to non-resident Bangladeshis and rest to the mutual funds, according to the figures provided by the GP.

Speaking on the occasion GP chief executive Oddvar Hesjedel thanked the regulators, issue managers and all other stakeholders for their cooperation to make the IPO a reality.

President of the Dhaka Stock Exchange Rakibur Rahman and other high officials of the GP and issue manger Citibank Global Markets Bangladesh were present at the function.

The company in a statement hoped that trading of the GP shares on Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges will start in November upon approval from the regulators and bourse authorities.