Apollo Hospitals, ITCL plan to float shares

Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Apollo Hospitals Dhaka and Information Technology Company Ltd are going to float shares to raise money for business expansion.

Both the companies have collected Tk 735 million through private placements, said Mafizuddin Sarker, managing director of LankaBangla.Finance, lead manager of both the private placements.

Ten organisations took part in funding Apollo, whereas 13 companies financed ITCL, he said.

Apollo Hospital will hit the capital market this year and ITCL next year, he said adding, "It is yet to be decided how many shares the companies will float or how much money they will raise."

LankaBangla is also working as lead manager to collect Tk 620 million as private placement for three companies, said Mr Mafiz, also chairman of the Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association (BLFCA).

The 29 non-bank financial institutions did very good business in 2009 and they earned about Tk 4 billion net profit, he said.

"As a chairman of the BLFCA, I contacted all the companies about their profits and compiled the figures to get a rough idea about the business situation last year," he added.

Most of the companies, including LankaBangla earned a good profit from their capital market operation, Mr Mafiz said.

LankaBangla is willing to invest in power sector and has already received some inquiries from the sector, he said.

"We are working as lead manager on two power projects involving about Tk 1 billion," he added.

The chairman said it is a big challenge to work as lead manager.

"It is a challenging task to convince all stakeholders about uniform interest rates and repayment periods," he explained.

Financial institutions prefer short-term investment, whereas banks like to invest in the long-term projects and the lead manager has to protect the interest of all the stakeholders, he said.