SA Group MD to transfer Mercantile Bank shares to Padma Bank

Md Shahabuddin Alam, former director of Mercantile Bank and managing director of SA Group, has decided to transfer 67.34 lakh shares of Mercantile Bank to Padma Bank to settle his defaulted loan.

According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) website, the transfer will be held outside the DSE trading system within the next 30 days.

Last year on 24 August, Shah Alam transferred 40.55 lakh shares of the bank to Southeast Bank to repay his outstanding loans as per court order.

The SA Group MD has loans of Tk3,600crore with several banks, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Earlier, the ACC opened an inquiry into the wealth of the businessman and his family. Later, a case was filed over the Farmers Bank, now Padma Bank, scandal against seven people, including Shah Alam and his wife, with the capital's Gulshan Police Station in October 2018.

The lawsuit came two weeks after the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Shah Alam from Dhaka in a case filed by Bank Asia with Chattogram 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. 

The group has also branched out into real estate, pulp and paper products, tea, and tank terminals for storing petroleum products.

Currently, it has a seventeen-unit industry.