AJ Corporation increases holding in Generation Next Fashions

Generation Next Fashions Limited's corporate director AJ Corporation Limited has been increasing its holding in the company to comply with rules regarding the minimum shares owned by the sponsors and directors.

In February this year, AJ Corporation declared to buy 80.19 lakh or 1.62% shares of the textile company. Since then, it has bought 65.19 lakh shares of Generation Next Fashions through the block market of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

Block market trading takes place beyond the regular trading screen where buyers and sellers make transactions at their pre-negotiated prices within the allowable range. It is set up mainly to facilitate bulk trades.

As of 31 March, the sponsors and directors jointly held 14.80% share of Generation Next Fashions, where the regulatory requirement is minimum 30%.

Market insiders said currently, the price of each share of Generation Next is Tk6 on the DSE, while its face value is Tk10. So, it is a perfect time to comply with the regulatory requirement at low cost.

Out of the total 49.5 crore shares, sponsor-directors held 14.48%, institutional investors 23.05% and general investors held 62.47% as of March.

Out of sponsors and directors, Tauhidul Islam Chaudhury has 5.13%, AJ Corporation 5.19%, Rajiv Sethi 2%, and Alavee Azfar Chaudhury 2.12% share of Generation Next Fashions.

Besides, the state-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh has a 10.51% share of the company.

The company did good business till 2018 but after that, it witnessed a sharp downfall. Its net profit was only Tk0.47 crore in FY22, which was Tk46 crore in FY18.

It could not pay any dividend to its shareholders from FY19 to FY21. However, it paid a 1% cash dividend in FY22.