The government has decided to offload shares of all its power companies in the stock market to raise funds for setting up more power projects.
To make the process faster, a committee, led by power secretary Monowar Islam has been formed and it was asked to submit reports on preparing necessary documents required for listing with the stock exchanges by 30 working days.
The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Bidyut Bhaban in the city yesterday, with energy adviser to the Prime Minister Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury in the chair.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and other related officials were also present at the meeting.
Representatives from Finance Division, Power Division, Power Development Board, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Investment Corporation of Bangladesh and Dhaka Stock Exchange are also members of the committee.
Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury told the meeting that the purpose for offloading shares of power companies is to implement different power projects by raising funds from the market.
The name of companies under the Power Division are Power Division include Dhaka Power Distribution Company, West Zone Power Distribution Company, Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh, North-West Power Generation Company, Rural Power Company and Coal Power Generation Company of Bangladesh Limited.
Currently, two state-owned power companies – Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) – are listed with the stock exchanges.
The government in 2006 offloaded 25% of its shares in Desco and 23.75% of its shares in PGCB through direct listing.
Over the last five years, the government failed to offload shares of the state-owned enterprises after repeated attempts since January 2010, when it selected 26 SoEs and instructed related public agencies to offload shares in the next six months.
Since then, only two companies – Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation – have sold out parts of their stakes through IPOs amid repeated instructions from the finance ministry.
