Four firms return to mainboard from OTC with a bang

Four companies have returned to the mainboard from the over-the-counter (OTC) market of the stock exchanges after more than 10 years.

The four companies are Tamijuddin Textile Mills Limited, Bangladesh Monospool Paper Manufacturing Co Limited, Paper Processing, and Packaging Limited, and Monno Fabrics Limited.

On Sunday, the companies started trading under Z-category in the main market. The DSE board of directors on Thursday decided to re-list the four companies.

In February this year, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission allowed the companies to return to the main board of the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the Chittagong Stock Exchange from the OTC market after meeting the securities rules.

The companies were sent to the OTC market as their financial performances were poor.

On Sunday, Monospool Paper rose 10 percent to close at Tk 55, Paper Processing and Packaging 10 percent at Tk 17.6, Tamijuddin Textile 10 percent at Tk 13.2 and Monno Fabrics 10 percent at Tk 11.

As part of the plan to abolish the OTC market, the four companies were allowed to trade on the mainboard.

Of companies traded on the OTC platform, fifty companies will be transferred to the different trading platforms, including the main board of the stock exchanges, the SME Board, and the Alternative Trading Board (ATB), sources at the BSEC.

In line with the performance of the companies, fifteen companies will be transferred to the SME board, 30 to the ATB board and the decision is yet to be taken on the rest of the companies, according to the BSEC chairman.

In 2009, the OTC market was formed with the companies which were not in production, held Annual General Meetings (AGM) irregularly, had paper shares, and failed to submit financial reports and pay dividends.

United Airways was the latest company that was sent to the OTC platform as the company’s performance was poor.

On the other hand, some companies already returned to the mainboard from the OTC market after improving their performances and complying with the securities rules. These are United Commercial Bank, Wata Chemical, Sonali Paper, Alif Industries.