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Dhabi Group, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) conglomerate, has shown interest to buy a nationalised commercial bank (NCB) to expand its banking business in Bangladesh.
It has already taken over operation of the Dhaka branch of Bahrain-based Shamil bank and renamed it as Al Falah Bank, which is expected to begin operation from the next month.
"We have expressed our interest to buy a government-owned bank during our meeting with Bangladesh Bank governor," Dhabi Group chief executive officer Bashir A Tahir told reporters Saturday at a local hotel prior to his departure.
Dhabi Group officials, who were on a five-day visit here to explore investment, met the central bank governor Thursday.
The group will take the opportunity when the government invites international tender to privatise its four NCBs, Tahir added.
Bangladesh plans to privatise Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks. Meanwhile, the government has started a process on privatisation of Rupali Bank.
Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman has said the government is looking for a party with a sound banking background to hand over the Rupali bank.
Besides, the Dhabi Group is actively considering investment in telecom and infrastructure sectors under joint venture with the government.
Tahir said his group has drawn out a number of projects in the telecom sector while it plans to construct a five-star hotel and a shopping mall. Under its Warid Telecom, the group has already sought a license to operate telecom network in Bangladesh, he added.
"More than US$1.0 billion will be needed to implement the projects," he said adding that they expect to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as early as possible so that they could invest here within the next two years.
To a query, he said Dhabi Group has chosen to invest in this part of the world due to religious and cultural closeness between the UAE and the countries of the sub-continent.
The group has already invested in Pakistan and Sri Lanka and its next target is Bangladesh and India, he added.
Responding to another query, Tahir said the investment climate in Bangladesh has been improving due to various steps taken by the government.
"I am finding a lot of changes that were absent during my last visit here three years ago," he observed.
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