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The Finance Ministry has taken a step to quicken divestment of government shares lying with the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), official sources said.
"Under the plan, the ministry will issue a circular to the concerned ministries that control the SOEs to offload the government shares immediately," a senior finance ministry official told the FE.
He said the ministry would ask the SOEs to follow measures, as prescribed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for divesting the government shares.
The official said the SEC prepared the Action Plan and submitted it to the ministry a couple of month back, which is an indication for speedy divestment of government holdings from the SOEs.
When contacted, SEC Chairman Mirza Azizul Islam said offloading of the government shares from the SOEs would enhance the stock market's capital base.
He said the commission has been trying to implement it for long to put the capital market on a sound footing.
The newly launched state-owned Teletalk mobile company and public entities in oil, gas and other profitable companies are among the SOEs planned by the government for divestment.
Commission sources said the action plan deals with various procedures to implement the government's scheme to float its shares in different profitable SOEs for the private investors.
Asset restructuring, direct listing and offloading of government's existing shares are among the measures the government might opt for divesting its shares.
Stock market players are demanding that the SOE shares should be offloaded through open market mechanism with active participation of investors.
"The government should not follow the instance of offloading its shares from Eastern Bank Ltd. It only benefited a limited number of people," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Salahuddin Ahmed Khan told the FE.
The procedure should be similar to that of the issuance of shares by private companies in the stock market, he said.
The government is now actively considering offloading of some 7.6 million shares now owned by seven state-owned listed companies.
The companies include Atlas Bangladesh, National Tubes, Eastern Cables, Padma Oil, Eastern Lubricant, Usmania Glass and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB).
The present market value of the shares of these companies would be worth Tk 341.62 million, the bourse sources said.
The government is now holding 51 per cent shares of Atlas Bangladesh, Eastern Cables and Usmania Glass, 53 per cent of National Tubes, 50 per cent of Padma Oil and 27 per cent of the ICB.
All these seven companies are now being traded in the A-category on both the bourses - DSE and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE).
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