Since its corporate deceleration and later an announcement about flight cancellation for an indefinite period, share trading pattern of United Airways has raised eyebrows.
A large number of the company's shares amounting to Tk29.8 crore were traded on last Thursday following the news that United Airways had cancelled all its flights for an indefinite period due to financial crisis, two days after its founder was forced to step down.
But the company's daily average trade was over Tk5 crore during the month of September just before the private airlines' drama unfolded one after another.
“Share trading on Thursday was more than unusual,” United Airways Deputy General Manager Kamrul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said it was a question of survival when a company declared that it would suspend operations, but the following day so many shares were traded and it surprised the management also.
“So far I heard, there was no buyer in the first hour, but suddenly there were huge transactions.”
When asked any board member or any official of the management bought any share in the last week, Islam said: “I don’t know.”
Ehsanul Hai, a retail investor said, “When I came to know an airlines company is going to suspend its operations I realised that a particular company was going to sink. I have no options but to sell its share.”
On Wednesday, the company declared that it would suspend its flight operations on cash crunch grounds when 6.6m shares were traded. But most surprisingly, a total of about 32.86m shares were traded the following day.
On September 22, Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury resigned from the post of chairman and managing director and the board was reconstituted.
Mohammad Mahatabur Rahman became the chairman while Shahinoor Alam was made the managing director (acting) and Ferdous Imam chief executive officer (acting).
But in a dramatic move, the company on Friday said it would resume operations from Saturday after a three-day suspension.