Six Investors Invited To Exercise Due Diligence On Bangladesh's Oriental Bank

October 4, 2007 12:30 p.m. EST

 
Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - The Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, has invited six potential investors to exercise due diligence on the troubled Oriental Bank Limited to buy its shares worth US$58.22 million (BDT 4.0 billion), officials say in Dhaka.

The central bank of Bangladesh has already sent such invitation letters to the companies after preparing a short-list out of seven investors to sell the shares of the bank.

"We have invited the interested parties to perform due diligence on the bank," a BB senior official told the AHN in the capital, Dhaka. He also said a committee will be formed to evaluate the tender documents after receiving bids from the interested parties.

The interested local parties, which have already submitted their expression of interests (EoIs), have been given 10 working days from October 7 while foreign interested parties will also get the same number of working days from October 27 next to perform due diligence.

The local parties are BRAC Bank Limited, Summit Industrial & Mercantile Corporation (Pvt.) Limited and Domestic Investors Consortium, a forum comprising local commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions.

The foreign interested companies are the United Kingdom-based East Invest Private Equity Limited, ICB Financial Group Holdings of Switzerland and Hatton National Bank of Sri Lanka.

The central bank has prepared the short-list on the basis of the BB's 'Fit and Proper Test' method and the short-listed bidders will be contacted for taking part in the final bidding process, they add.

The Oriental Bank Limited, a local private commercial bank that faced a severe financial crisis was taken over by the central bank, which dissolved the bank's board of directors, removed its managing director, and appointed an administrator to run the bank temporarily.

The central bank of Bangladesh has planned to complete the implementation of a restructuring scheme after installing a new management of the bank by January 25, 2008.