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Beximco, the Bangladeshi ceramics to pharmaceuticals conglomerate, may seek a listing on London's AIM market for its key textiles business by the end of 2006.
Salman Rahman, deputy chairman, said the move was likely to be launched as soon as a series of different textile companies in the group were consolidated into a single company.
The move would mark a second London listing for the group, which is quoted in Bangladesh but also launched a placement on AIM this autumn for its pharmaceuticals business.
The latest quotation would represent a reinforcement of Beximco's connections to the UK, given that it has counted UK clothing retailers including C&A, Gap and Next among its clients, as well as Royal Doulton and British Airways among its ceramics customers.
Its textiles business accounts for half of Beximco's profits and has been substantially expanded in recent years, becoming the largest single supplier to the Spanish retailer Zara, as well as a number of other leading international branded clothes companies such as DKNY, Van Heusen, Calvin Klein and Mexx.
Beximco has also experimented with launching its own mid to upper market retail brand called Yellow, with three stores in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, one in Pakistan and one in South Korea. It is even considering in the longer term launching an outlet in the UK.
It has exploited the benefits of labour costs as low as $30-$60 a month for its textiles employees, and benefits from the absence of any import quotas to the EU and other leading western markets for its goods.
However, it has had to provide substantial infrastructure for itself in Bangladesh's poorly equipped capital.
Beximco's pharmaceuticals business already provides substantial sales within the country and the region for a range of drugs, but is gearing up to exploit a loophole in international trade agreements in order to sell generic drugs that are still protected by patents in other poor foreign countries.
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