UAE-based group to take over Perfume Chemicals with export potential

The UAE-based Al-Haramain Group is going to take over Perfume Chemicals Industries listed on Bangladesh's stock market, though out of operation for a long time. The UAE group plans to revive the company and produce perfumes with export potential.

According to sources at the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), Al-Haramain will purchase shares held by the sponsors and directors of the company.

The group will also take care of Perfume Chemicals Industries' debt issues.

According to sources, the Al-Haramain Group will manufacture perfumes to export to various countries in the Middle East. It will generate employment and earn foreign currency for Bangladesh.

It was not confirmed at what price the shares of the sponsors and directors will be bought.

"Its owners cannot run the company and the machinery is getting damaged, so they have agreed to sell it," a BSEC senior official told The Business Standard.  

"The company has some complications involving loans. The take-over process will be completed once the complications are resolved," he added.

Perfume Chemicals Industries housed at the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) industrial estate in Chattogram used to produce "Manola" brand cream, and talcum powder, that were once very popular.

The company mainly manufactured, processed, packed, stocked and dealt in fine chemicals, besides manufacturing and marketing quality cosmetics and toilet requisites.

The products of the company ‍were Manola love 21 talc, Manola vanishing cream, Manola freshness cream, Manola prickly heat talc, and Liz Arden (shampoo).

Due to lack of proper investment and diversification of its products, it lost market share to competitors and plunged into crisis. In 2017, it became fully non-operational.

According to sources, the company started reducing production in 2004 in line with the falling demand for its products.  

Soon the listed company failed to submit financial statements to the regulatory body.

The Over-the-Counter (OTC) board was formed in 2009 to deal with weak and defunct companies in the capital market and the company was moved from the main market to the OTC.

However, BSEC took initiative to revive the company in the interest of its investors and save the machinery from getting damaged.

Bangladeshi national Mohammed Mahtabur Rahman is the chairman and managing director of the Al-Haramain Group of Companies which is doing business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  

The group manufactures perfumes to export to various Middle East countries.

To create jobs in the country and save the domestic perfume company, Mahtabur was contacted and he offered to buy it.

Commission officials said, despite initial reluctance, the group later agreed to buy the shares of the sponsor-directors of the company.

The owners of the company have also agreed to sell, given losses in equipment and assets, they added.

As the company's factory is in the BSCIC Industrial Estate, it owes more than Tk10 lakh in fees. The company did not pay any fees after the factory was completely shut down.

Perfume Chemical Industries at a glance

Perfume Chemical Industries – one of the pioneers in the chemical industry in Bangladesh – started as a partnership in 1972 which converted into a private limited company in 1974.

Later on, it was converted into a public limited company in 1991 and offered shares to the public with the approval of the stock market regulator in 1997.

The shares of the company are listed both on the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the Chittagong Stock Exchange.

Sources said political unrest and other factors beyond the control of the company caused tremendous disruption in its operation in the early 2000s.

At the time, production was hampered enormously by frequent power outages.