GP's IPO to Open 'Sept-End'

by Hamidur on Thursday, August 20, 2009

GrameenPhone's record IPO received the final regulatory nod on Thursday to raise almost Tk 500 crore from the capital market, and subscriptions may open as early as September-end, a top official said. Securities and Exchange Commission executive director Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan told reporters an SEC board meeting that the final approval for Bangladesh's biggest ever public offering by its largest mobile phone operator came in the meeting.

"We hope that the subscriptions for the issue will be open in the week after the Eid. Usually, the company fixes the subscription date, but in this case, it will be done in consultation with the SEC, he said.

"The exception came as it's a mega issue." added Bhuiyan.

GP has been cleared to issue 69,439,000 ordinary shares to raise Tk 486 crore from the market. The offer price of each share has been fixed at Tk 70, which comprises a face value of Tk 10 and a premium of Tk 60, the SEC official said. "In the pre-IPO placement, the company issued about 6.56 crore shares with a face value of Tk 10 and a premium of Tk 64."

On July 2, GP received a formal consent from the SEC to enter the share market after twice submitting proposals. GP submitted its first IPO prospectus on July 29 last year, when a senior GP official told that the company would offer each share at Tk 18. "The face value of each share will be Tk 1 and a premium of Tk 17 will be offered," said the official preferring anonymity.

The SEC asked the company to submit a fresh application setting some conditions, which included converting the face value of the offered shares from Tk 1 per share to Tk 10 per share. GP filed its final IPO application with the SEC in December 2008 and had submitted the final prospectus in January 2009.

The company, however, in a statement released on July 2 this year, said the offer price remained unchanged, as per the original application.