Yeakin Polymer's ownership transfer again gets BSEC nod

The securities regulator again approved the transfer of sponsor-director shares of publicly listed Yeakin Polymer Limited to Kapita Packaging Solutions Limited—a non-listed firm.

In May 2022, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) had allowed Yeakin Polymer to transfer its owners' shares to Kapita Packaging. But the listed firm failed to do the needful within the stipulated time.

Consequently, the BSEC consent had become time-barred and non-executable.

Then, Yeakin Polymer again applied to the commission for a time extension of the approval, and finally secured the approval on 21 December 2023 to transfer the shares through an off-market transaction.

According to the BSEC document obtained by The Business Standard, the new sponsor-directors will jointly maintain at least 30% holding all time. The transferred shares will be locked in with the new beneficiary owners' (BO) account, and no margin loan will be allowed against the transferred shares.

Furthermore, to execute the share transfer deal, the shares have to be unblocked. After completion of the transfer, the shares will be blocked again so that the new owner cannot sell them without prior regulatory approval, the document reads.

Yeakin Polymer manufactures poly sacks. The company has been struggling since 2018. 

To revive the firm's business, Kapita Packaging will buy out 30.11% or 2,21,93,745 shares from the sponsor-directors of Yeakin Polymer at the face value of Tk10 each.

Yeakin Polymer owes various lenders nearly Tk34 crore and the company's outgoing sponsor-directors must obtain no-objection certificates (NOCs) from those lenders before selling the shares.