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A number of foreign financial institutions, including banks, have expressed their interest to buy the state-owned Rupali Bank during the ongoing road show programme organised by the Privatisation Commission (PC) in some major Asian cities.
So far, some top-level banks have registered their names to participate in the Expression of Interest (EoI) bid for buying the Rupali Bank, PC sources said.
The Bank Alfalah, State Bank of India (SBI), two private banks of Malaysia, Alliance Group of Malaysia, Oman Financial Company are likely to submit their EoI.
The PC authorities organised the road show in Mumbai Monday. The same event will be held in Dubai today (Tuesday), sources said.
The road show' would continue until 30th March.
Sources said interested buyers are free to submit EoI either individually and jointly.
Earlier, the PC held road show in Dhaka for attracting customers for buying Rupali Bank March 9 last.
Recently, the PC at its 32nd meeting held February 27 last decided to go for road shows at home and abroad to sell 67 per cent shares of the Rupali Bank.
The PC sources said the privatisation process of the Rupali Bank has been delayed mainly due to filing of writ petition with the High Court by the bank's employees.
The PC officials said when the court vacated the earlier writ petition in favour of the PC during the later part of the last year the privatisation process gained momentum.
Rupali Bank started its operation as nationalised commercial bank (NCB) in 1972 with 159 branches, 2416 officials and employees and a paid up capital Tk 50.0 million, sources said.
The number of branches increased in subsequent years with also rise in the number of officials and employees.
The bank was made as a public limited company in 1986 as a first step towards privatisation and the management decided to offload 49 per cent shares.
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