News Clippings

14 January 2021

Contents

Section 14 : Bangla News, Page-02

Section 2 : English News, Page-18

Circulated to:

DSE Readers

Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited

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Section 01 :

Bangla

News

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Daily Prothom Alo 14 January 2021

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Daily Prothom Alo 14 January 2021

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Daily Prothom Alo 14 January 2021

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Daily Bonik Barta 14 January 2021

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Daily Samakal 14 January 2021

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Daily Jugantor 14 January 2021

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Daily Janakantha 14 January 2021

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Daily Share Biz 14 January 2021

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Daily Share Biz 14 January 2021

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Jai Jai Din 14 January 2021

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Daily Bhorer Kagoj 14 January 2021

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Desh Rupantor 14 January 2021

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Desh Rupantor 14 January 2021

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Section 2 :

English

News

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The Financial Express 14 January 2021

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The Financial Express 14 January 2021

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Daily Star 14 January 2021

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Daily Star 14 January 2021

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Daily Sun

14 January 2021

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Daily New Age 14 January 2021

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Daily New Age 14 January 2021

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Dhaka Tribune 14 January 2021

BSEC caps interest rate on margin loans

Tribune Report

January 14th, 2021

Headquarters of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission in Dhaka's Agargaon Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

The interest rate on margin loans ranges from 13 to 15% but from now onwards, stockbrokers

and merchant bankers cannot charge more than 12%

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has set a ceiling on the

interest rate for the margin loans to retail investors, in yet another thoughtful step from the

new commission to safeguard the interests of small investors.

A margin loan is a type of loan taken from a brokerage house to buy more of a security --

such as a stock, bond or exchange-traded fund.

The existing securities in the account with the brokerage houses or merchant bank act as

collateral, with the creditors reserving the right to sell the securities if the terms of the loan

are not met.

The interest rate on margin loans ranges from 13 per cent to 15 per cent, Dhaka Tribune

learnt after speaking with several investors who trade in some of the top brokerage houses.

From now onwards, stockbrokers and merchant bankers cannot charge more than 12 per cent

per annum for such loans.

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The margin loan interest rate can be at most 3 per cent higher than the cost of their fund but

cannot exceed 12 per cent, according to a statement on Wednesday from the BSEC following

the commission meeting, where the decision was taken.

Also at the meeting, IDLC Finance’s proposal to issue a Tk 500 crore unsecured, non-

convertible, zero-coupon, four-year bond to meet its ongoing financial demands got the green

light.

The per-unit price of the bond is Tk 50 lakh.

The units will be sold to banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, corporate bodies,

asset management companies, mutual funds, and high net worth individuals, “other than

existing” shareholders of the company through private placements in cash consideration.

At Wednesday's meeting, the BSEC also fined Skys Securities and Subvalley Securities Tk 2

lakh each for non-compliance.

Additionally, a fine of Tk 1 lakh was announced for an authorised representative of Subvalley

Securities.

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Dhaka Tribune 14 January 2021

eGeneration raring to lead the charge of

tech invasion in Bangladesh’s healthcare

sector

Niaz Mahmud

January 14th, 2021

'We are working relentlessly to help bring a cultural transformation initiated by advanced

technologies'

As of now, the state of digitalisation in Bangladesh is where it would have been, arguably,

five years later were there no global coronavirus pandemic.

The rogue virus from Wuhan, China made Bangladeshis -- along with the rest of the world --

see the beauty of technology.

And it is this spirit of the age that eGeneration, the only Bangladeshi licencing solutions

partner (LSP) of Microsoft and premier partner of SAP (ERP solutions provider), is aiming to

leverage.

Earlier on October 21, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC)

approved the company's proposal to raise Tk 15 crore from the market, making it the first

software technology company in the country to go public.

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The 17-year-old company is set to offload 1.5 crore shares at Tk 10 each, and the window to

get a slice of the stock sale shuts on January 18.

About 65.6 per cent of the proceeds from the initial public offering would be going towards

business expansion.

And the crown jewel of eGeneration’s business expansion plans is a digital healthcare

platform.

The healthcare sector is significantly behind other sectors in terms of using data and

emerging technologies, Shameem Ahsan, managing director of eGeneration, told Dhaka

Tribune yesterday.

“If the hospitals transformed themselves digitally in the pre-pandemic period, we probably

would not have lost so many experienced doctors, healthcare staff and patients during this

pandemic.”

Moreover, the hospitals could have offered better and safer healthcare services to more

people even with their limited resources, said Ahsan, also a former president of the

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

The digital healthcare platform in the works would digitalise the medical records, linked to

the national identity card database and accessible between hospitals.

The platform is already being piloted with members of the Border Guard of Bangladesh.

According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 10 patients experience medical errors while

receiving hospital care, and one of the main reasons behind this is paper-based manual

medical record-keeping, Ahsan said.

Due to the lack of instant access to information, a doctor may have to make a critical decision

without assessing the prior medical conditions of a patient, which can very well lead to some

adverse event.

“That is why we are putting a lot of emphasis on the adoption of electronic medical records.”

It will also enable health system interoperability so that a patient’s health records from one

hospital are made readily available to other hospitals and physicians.

“We are working relentlessly to help bring a cultural transformation initiated by advanced

technologies that will lead to an equal-level partnership between patients and their

caregivers,” said Ahsan, also the chairman of the Venture Capital and Private Equity

Association of Bangladesh.

Other than the ground-breaking platform, eGeneration is also planning to ramp up its export

of IT products and services, particularly to India, Nepal, Bhutan, Malaysia and several other

African countries.

At present, it is already working on the internet of things (IoT) in Japan and on a cloud-based

application in the Middle East.

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eGeneration, which started as a management consulting, technology services and outsourcing

company, now offers data science, system integration, cybersecurity, natural language

processing and capacity development services to its clients.

The company is also doing extensive research on advanced technologies such as machine

learning and artificial intelligence.

Some of its upcoming products are blockchain, cloud computing, data centre, agriculture

prediction system, money laundering detector, agriculture automation system, etc, according

to a report of Brac-EPL.

At present, eGeneration offers low-cost IT services to banks and financial institutions,

garment and textile factories, consumer goods industries, e-commerce, business-to-business

platform and different departments of the government.

Some of its notable clients include the ICT division, Sonali Bank, Robi, bKash, S Alam

Group, Brac University, the report said.

About 52 per cent of eGeneration’s revenue of Tk 39.6 crore in its 2019-20 financial year

came from three clients: Bangladesh Computer Council (21.3 per cent), Robi (19.4 per cent)

and Sonali Bank (11.7 per cent), according to Brac-EPL’s research.

“Although the industry can be run remotely, the regular activities of the industry were

hampered due to cancellation or postponement of products from the client-side resulting from

the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Demand for IT products from overseas clients also plunged at the same time, the report said.

According to industry experts, annual revenue declined by 20-25 per cent in the 2019-20

financial year.

“Despite facing all these obstacles, eGeneration registered 8.9 per cent top-line growth,” the

Brac-EPL report added.

The top line refers to a company’s revenues or gross sales.

Ahsan is expecting eGeneration’s revenue to hit Tk 57 crore by next year.

“We will use the proceeds to repay a major portion of our long-term debt to reduce our cost

of capital and purchase commercial office space that will minimise our operating expenses

and ease bank financing in the future,” he added.

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The Business Standard 14 January 2021

Robi generates highest ever single stock

turnover in regular trading

Dhaka and Chattogram bourses together hosted Tk528 crore trading into Robi shares on Wednesday

As sellers agreed to trade some Robi Axiata shares on Wednesday, the company witnessed its

first ever flat closing since its debut four weeks ago.

Also, spontaneous trading participation of the sellers helped the telecom operator generate a

record high daily turnover in any single scrip at the Bangladesh stock market, if some large

deal executing trades at the block market were excluded.

Dhaka and Chattogram bourses together hosted Tk528 crore trading into Robi shares on

Wednesday. Its competitor Grameenphone had generated its highest ever daily stock turnover

of Tk213 crore in December 2010.

Having its debut on 24 December 2020, Robi closed at the highest allowable limit for the

specific day until Tuesday.

On the 14th session of Wednesday, the stock began trading at the 10% ceiling, but as

investors began to book some profits, the price started to come down and closed at Tk63.8

per share, which was only 0.9% higher than the previous closing.

The securities regulator, on Tuesday, directed the bourses to scrutinise the trading of any

scrip if its price increases or decreases by 50% or more in a month. That ignited profit

booking in the market.

Robi having its debut at Tk15 per share gained more than 300% in its stunning rally over the

last four weeks.

Robi, following its largest ever initial public offering last year, has already emerged as the

third largest listed company in terms of market capitalisation, and the largest listed company

in terms of paid-up capital.

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The Business Standard 14 January 2021

Regulator backtracks on probing stocks’

abnormal price hikes

The BSEC postponed the implementation of its instructions after the market experienced a negative impac

Bangladesh Security Exchange Commission at Agargaon. File Photo

In less than a day, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has

backtracked on its decision to impose some regulatory measures to bring stability to the

market.

On Tuesday, the regulator directed stock exchanges to investigate the reasons behind the

abnormal price hikes of the shares of a number of listed companies.

But, the following day, it postponed the implementation of its instructions after the market

experienced a negative impact.

"We have postponed the guidelines issued for the stock exchanges," said BSEC

Commissioner Dr Shamsuddin.

"It has created confusion among investors. For this reason, the commission has decided to put

it off," he added.

Market insiders said the stock market suffered a big blow following the issuance of the

guidelines on the investigation, and investors were confused by the BSEC's decision.

Indices of both stock exchanges fell on Wednesday.

DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped by 1.55% or

91.02 points to settle at 5,770.

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However, the turnover on the DSE rose by 6.34% or Tk126 crore on Wednesday.

Recently, many listed companies' share prices have increased by three to four times in the

post-pandemic capital market.

The share price of Robi Axiata Limited, which was recently listed, has increased almost six

times since its debut. The company's shares rose by 530% last month.

Additionally, the Bangladesh Export Import Company's share price has increased by 155% –

from Tk31 to Tk80 per share – within the last month.

Further, the share price of LankaBangla Finance has increased by 92% – from Tk23 to Tk44

per share – within the last month.