Janata Bank likely to submit prospectus to SEC Thursday

Janata Bank Limited is likely to submit its prospectus to the securities regulator by Thursday seeking the latter's nod to go for initial public offering (IPO) while some other state-owned banks like Sonali and Agrani are also planning to offload shares in the stock market.

Janata Bank, subject to the approval of SEC will offer 10 million shares for subscription under its IPO placement in the stock market, sources said.

"We'll submit the prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Thursday. The procedure of submission is already completed," an official of the ICB Capital Management Limited, the issue manager of Janata Bank Limited, told the FE.

The state-owned bank, subject to the approval of SEC will raise Tk 100 billion (1000 crore) by offloading the 10 million shares with the face value of Tk 100 each. The offered price of a share will be Tk 1,000 including a premium of Tk 900, the source added.

The bank has proposed the premium rate based on its fundamentals compared with other banks, according to the source.

Before the IPO approval, the bank will issue bonus and rights shares totalling Tk 1.00 billion and Tk 1.25 billion respectively.

The bank's present paid-up capital is Tk 2.59 billion, which will rise to Tk 4.84 billion after issuance of the bonus and rights shares.

The present Earning Per Share (EPS) and Net Asset Value (NAV) per share of Janata Bank are Tk 121 and Tk 349.37 respectively. The projected EPS for the next year is Tk 132.

Janata Bank Limited, one of the state-owned commercial banks in Bangladesh, also has an authorised capital of Tk 8.0 billion, a reserve of Tk 4,182.52 million and a retained surplus of Tk 2,285.94 million. The bank has a total asset of more than Tk 267.157 billion as of December 31, 2008.