CSE seeks 1 year more to search strategic investor

Chittagong Stock Exchange has requested Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to extend time for selecting a strategic partner by one year more as the port city bourse has so far failed to reach any agreement with any institution in this regard.
The bourse has recently sent a letter to BSEC, requesting the market regulator to give the stock exchange more time to find a strategic investor, CSE officials said.
Earlier, on March 7 last year, BSEC extended the deadline by one year to March 8 this year for the bourse for the purpose.
CSE managing director M Shaifur Rahman Mazumdar told New Age that the bourse had sent a request letter to the commission after its board of directors decided to seek an extension of the time by one year for entering into an agreement with a strategic partner as required by section 14 of exchanges’ demutualisation act, 2013.
He said that a number of companies and stock exchanges had showed their interest to be strategic partner of the bourse and they were assessing business environment of the bourse.
National Stock Exchange of India has forwarded a proposal to BSEC over business development and policy development that is yet to be addressed, CSE officials said.
They said that NSE sought policy to develop brokers’ performance at CSE as most of them remained underperformers.
The capital market of the country is mostly equity based and there is no product diversification that reduces interest of the foreign companies to invest in the stock exchange.
On top of that, there is no difference in terms of business nature between the CSE and the Dhaka Stock Exchange that keeps CSE backward as investors like to invest through the premier bourse (DSE) of the country, CSE officials said.
Earlier, in 2017, CSE had offered 46 stock exchanges and 42 investment companies globally to be its strategic investor, but no one is yet to submit final proposal.
Among others, NSE, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, APH Finance of Hong Kong, Singapore Exchange, Gateway Partners Private Equity, SEDCO Capital, a Chinese consortium, Eagle Investments, Indian Financial Services, Gulf Islamic Investment, Canaccord Genuity and a Hong Kong-based institution got the CSE offer.
Shaifur said that the firms did not provide any specific idea about their investment in the CSE’s 25 per cent stake kept reserved for a strategic partner.
BSEC officials said the matter of extending deadline was placed before the commission and the regulator might give its decision at the next commission meeting. 
A Chinese consortium of Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges on September 5 last year joined Dhaka Stock Exchange as its strategic shareholder through purchasing its 25 per cent shares for Tk 947 crore.
Source: http://www.newagebd.net

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