The firms were already in coma, Covid just quickened their death | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
June 13, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2025
The firms were already in coma, Covid just quickened their death

Economy

Rezaul Karim
05 October, 2022, 01:30 pm
Last modified: 05 October, 2022, 03:09 pm

Related News

  • Covid-19 is back but these 5 simple habits can still keep you safe
  • Covid on the rise again; hospitals preparing to tackle spread
  • Rizvi questions govt preparedness over new Covid variant spread
  • Bangladesh reports 5 more Covid-19 cases
  • DMTCL urges Metro passengers to wear masks amid rising Covid-19 cases

The firms were already in coma, Covid just quickened their death

More and more companies liquidated in recent years as they failed to pay creditors and ran out of cash

Rezaul Karim
05 October, 2022, 01:30 pm
Last modified: 05 October, 2022, 03:09 pm
Infographic: TBS
Infographic: TBS

Like hundreds of human victims, several hundred small and ailing companies also died from the coronavirus fallouts in the last couple of years. They include companies like footwear accessory-maker Innerbd Products Ltd and garment exporter Middly Fashion Ltd, both suffering from lack of competent leadership.

The wave of liquidation seems to continue as the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms is now processing 208 more liquidation requests.

The companies have wound up owing to ownership crises, internal disputes and mounting bank loans compounded by Covid, according to data from the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.

For example, take the case of Innerbd Products Ltd, which was established in 1998 and touched the Tk200 crore mark of annual turnover in 2014. The production line included footwear-making accessories and one-time paper cups.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Amjad Hosen, the founder-managing director of Innerbd, died in 2015. Then his wife, sons and daughter took over the firm. Under the new leadership, the company did not fare well. Then came the Covid pandemic, forcing the new owners to shutter the business in mid-2020 owing to labour and financial crises.

"We had been trying to keep the business afloat. But it's true that we did not actually understand it," Ashikur Rahman Shuvo, Amjad Hosen's elder son who took charge as managing director of the company, told The Business Standard.

Shuvo said there were 300 workers at the company's Gazipur, Tongi and Narayanganj factories. The pandemic eroded sales and at the same time movement restrictions intensified the labour crisis.

"At one point, we decided to apply for liquidation," he said. Following the completion of some official procedures, the company was wound up in February 2021. The factories, lands and raw materials in the inventory were sold at Tk240 crore, bank loans were cleared, workers were bid goodbye and the remaining amount was distributed among the family.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), said many small or ailing businesses could not sustain the Covid shock. Besides, many businesses are still in trouble due to inflation, gas shortage and record fuel price hike.

According to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, the number of companies liquidated in FY18, FY19, FY20, FY21 and FY22 are 108, 131, 93, 143 and 281, in that order.

Businessmen who liquidated their firms said they were not able to salvage the companies even with the stimulus loans provided by the government because of business ailments going back years.

Middly Fashion Ltd, an apparel exporter located in Savar wound up in 2020, had been suffering from internal disputes.

The stakeholders were reluctant about dealing with the company's financial affairs, said Middly's former Managing Director Hasibur Rahman. Besides, the bank loans were mounting, pushing the apparel exporter to the end game.

The winding up account of Dhaka's Shafin Wooden Board Ltd sounds similar to Middly.

Russell Lodge Holdings Ltd, a realtor liquidated in June this year, had to face a court order to close the business. A land owner who signed a deal with the company ten years ago filed a liquidation plea with the court, as he said the realtor did not complete the promised housing project and hand over his apartments even after a decade.

An official of Northern Consumer Products Ltd, another firm that filed a liquidation plea with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, said the company was unable to stay afloat due to a Covid-led business collapse.

Sheikh Shoebul Alam, registrar of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, said companies are like artificial living entities that cannot die on their own.

"Therefore, we have to complete several procedures and then let the company die," he commented. "Liquidation is a legal process by which a business ceases its legal existence and wraps up operations."

Md Jashim Uddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FBCCI), said the pandemic cannot solely be held responsible for the business closure.

"It is appropriate to say that companies that were already ill could not survive the Covid shock," he added.

PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur believes the authorities are also responsible for ensuring that firms are administered properly. He said trade bodies too have a moral responsibility to lend a hand to ailing businesses.

Many companies also sprang up during Covid

Rajshahi's Nazmul Hossain Rony registered a company named "Soviet Mechinariz'" in late 2020. He said he used to buy imported pharmaceutical equipment and sell it to local companies.

"I used to do retail business. Demand for medical equipment increased during the pandemic and I seized the opportunity to open my own business," he told TBS.

"Now I am importing pharmaceutical equipment from China, Russia and the UK. My business is going pretty well," he added.

Like his company, many new entities – especially imports, exports and e-commerce platforms – availed registration even during the pandemic.

In FY22, some 13,218 companies and firms took out business registration. The number was 6,945 in FY19, 11,128 in FY20 and 14,826 in FY21.

A spike in online shopping and food deliveries led to the registration boom even during the pandemic, said officials.

Many took out registration as the country faced a resurgence in remittances during the pandemic, according to Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh.

"Besides, people have innovated many new businesses, contributing to the registration surge," he added.

Bangladesh / Top News

liquidity / Company / Covid

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Infographics: TBS
    Lengthy legal road ahead to repatriate Saifuzzaman's wealth from UK
  • From fact-checker to fact-checked: CA Press Wing’s turn in the hot seat
    From fact-checker to fact-checked: CA Press Wing’s turn in the hot seat
  • Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner showing part of its registration "VT-ANB" in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
    Air India Dreamliner crashes into Ahmedabad college hostel, kills over 290

MOST VIEWED

  • Keir Starmer declines to meet CA Yunus: FT report
    Keir Starmer declines to meet CA Yunus: FT report
  • Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner showing part of its registration "VT-ANB" in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
    Air India Dreamliner crashes into Ahmedabad college hostel, kills over 290
  • Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    UK crime agency now freezes assets of ex-land minister Saifuzzaman: AJ
  • File Photo of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus: UNB
    Prof Yunus to receive Harmony Award from King Charles today
  • Infofgraphics: TBS
    DGHS issues 11-point directive to prevent spread of Covid-19 in Bangladesh
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    Bangladesh mulls settlements with tycoons over offshore wealth: BB governor tells FT

Related News

  • Covid-19 is back but these 5 simple habits can still keep you safe
  • Covid on the rise again; hospitals preparing to tackle spread
  • Rizvi questions govt preparedness over new Covid variant spread
  • Bangladesh reports 5 more Covid-19 cases
  • DMTCL urges Metro passengers to wear masks amid rising Covid-19 cases

Features

Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

1d | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

2d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

3d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

5d | Bangladesh

More Videos from TBS

Banks' estimates were wrong: Bangladesh Bank spokesperson

Banks' estimates were wrong: Bangladesh Bank spokesperson

8h | Podcast
What exactly happened to the ill-fated Boeing aircraft?

What exactly happened to the ill-fated Boeing aircraft?

9h | TBS World
Govt to set up Debt Office as loan burden to hit Tk29 lakh cr by FY28

Govt to set up Debt Office as loan burden to hit Tk29 lakh cr by FY28

9h | TBS Insight
Curfew imposed for second night in Los Angeles

Curfew imposed for second night in Los Angeles

10h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net