PK Halder’s 4 firms sanctioned Tk 260cr against Tk 36cr mortgaged property

International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL) sanctioned loans amounting to a whopping Tk 260 crore to four companies linked with scamster PK Halder by keeping mortgages way below the value that they should have been. The value of the mortgaged properties is now only Tk 36 crore.

Nazrul Islam Khan, Chairman of ILFSL, came up with the disclosure at a press briefing after the annual general meeting of the company held in Dhaka on Thursday.

PK Halder was a disgraced director of ILFSL. Investigation reports say Halder not only embezzled hundreds of crore taka from ILFSL but also from FAS Finance, from Peoples' Leasing and Reliance Finance.

The ILFSL chairman said the four defaulters — Reptiles Farm, Annan Chemical, Rahim Chemical and Northern Jute — were profitable ventures. But the companies were on the verge of closure due to absconding and inactive board of directors, he said.

“ILFSL owes Tk 260 crore to these four companies. But selling their mortgaged property will fetch only Tk 36 crore or 14 percent of the sanctioned amount at present,” Nazrul said.

Earlier, a newly-constituted ILFSL board took a creative initiative to reorganise the board of directors of the companies to keep their operations running, he said. In the meantime, Reptile Farm and Annan Chemical saw their boards have been reconstituted along with the managing directors, the ILFSL chairman said. 

The new boards have started working towards repayment of the debts of ILFSL, Nazrul said.

ILFSL Managing Director Moshiur Rahman said the overall expenditure in the institution decreased by 21 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.

During this period the overall loss came down by 70 percent, he said, adding, in this situation, work is being done to restructure the balance sheet.

He also said that ILFSL has tied up with Sonar Bangla Capital Management for issue management services with a view to converting ILFSL’s deposit and debt liabilities into equity, which will smoothen the way for cash flow generation.