Bangladesh to sell 25% stakes in Dhaka Stock Exchange to Chinese consortium; rejects India's offer

Dhaka: Bangladesh has said it will sell 25 percent stakes in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) to a Chinese consortium, rejecting a rival bid from India's National Stock Exchange, Nasdaq of the US and others.

Bangladesh's premier bourse directors had decided to accept the Chinese consortium's proposal on February 10 as it looked acceptable to them considering financial and technological aspects, bdnews24 reported.

They gave the final nod to the proposal by the consortium of Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange at a meeting of the board last evening, the DSE Managing Director KAM Majedur Rahman told reporters here.

They would "soon" send the proposal to the regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC, for endorsement, he added.

Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges are among the top bourses in the world boasting USD 3.5 trillion and USD 2.2 trillion market capital, respectively.

The market capital of the DSE is over USD 51.42 billion.

Another consortium of India's National Stock Exchange, Frontier Bangladesh and Nasdaq stock market of the US took part in the bidding to become the DSE's partners.

A DSE official earlier said that the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange had offered 15 taka (USD 0.18) per share to buy 25.1 percent shares of the DSE.

Officials said the Chinese consortium has proposed buying 25 percent stakes into the DSE for Tk 9.9 billion (USD 122 million) at Tk 22 per share. In its proposal, the consortium mentioned it will spend over Tk 3 billion (USD 37 million) to give the DSE a technological upgrade.

The DSE is trying to lure foreign investment as part of its demutualisation process to get technical and technological support from the strategic partners to further modernise the exchange.

According to the 2013 demutualisation scheme, 25 percent of the 1.8 billion shares of the DSE will be sold to strategic partners, 35 percent to small investors while 40 percent will be with the Trading Right Entitlement Certificate or TREC holders.