SA Group MD to sell 67.34 lakh of Mercantile Bank's shares
At present, Md Shahabuddin Alam holds a total of 85.38 lakh shares of the bank
Md Shahabuddin Alam, managing director of the Chattogram-based SA Group, and a former director of Mercantile Bank, will sell 67.34 lakh shares of the bank from his holdings.
On Tuesday, he expressed his intention to sell the shares worth Tk8 crore on the public market within the next 30 working days on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).
According to the declaration, Shahabuddin Alam will sell the shares at the prevailing market price of the bank.
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At present, he holds a total of 85.38 lakh shares of the bank.
The closing price of the bank's shares was Tk11.90 each, on Tuesday, at DSE.
Earlier on August 24, Shahabuddin Alam declared that he would transfer 40.55 lakh shares of the bank to Southeast Bank to repay his outstanding loans.
As per his declaration to the DSE, in complying with a court order, he will transfer the shares within the next 30 working days through a method outside the normal trading system of the DSE.
Shahabuddin Alam was a director of Mercantile Bank till 2017.
He was unable to be reached for comment despite several attempts.
A senior official of Southeast Bank said the loan was issued with Mercantile Bank's shares as a lien.
Now Shahabuddin Alam will transfer the shares as per the court's verdict to repay the outstanding loan, he added.
The SA Group boss has loans of Tk3,600 crore in several banks, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The ACC first opened an enquiry into the wealth of the businessman and his family after it had filed a case against seven people–including Alam and his wife–with Dhaka's Gulshan Police Station in October 2018, over the Farmers Bank scandal.
The lawsuit came within two weeks after the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Alam in Dhaka in a case filed by Bank Asia with Chattogram's Financial Loan Court in 2017.
SA Group, which started its journey in 1988, manufactures fast-moving consumer goods, including: edible oil, flour, condensed milk, beverages, salt, and milk.
Later, the group branched out into real estate, pulp and paper products, tea, and tank terminals for storing petroleum products.
Now it has 17 units of industry.
