Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, MP, Chairman, Board of Directors of Pubali Bank Limited unveils the cover of “Pubali Barta” at a function at the bank’s head office in Dhaka Wednesday.

Pubali Bank Limited (PBL) has unveiled a quarterly newspaper titled “Pubali Barta” containing all information of the bank.

Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, MP, Chairman of the bank unveiled the cover of “Pubali Barta” as a chief guest at a function at the bank’s head office Wednesday, said a press release.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22-Nov-12

Pubali Bank Ltd (PBL), one of the leading private commercial banks Wednesday donated Tk 500,000 to the Kidney Awareness Monitoring and Prevention Society (KAMPS), a voluntary organisation.

PBL has donated the amount to KAMPS with an aim to serve the distressed humanity through providing Kidney related services and raising awareness among the people across the country. Chairman of Pubali Bank, Md. Hafij Ahmed Majumder formally handed over a cheque for Tk 500,000 to Chairman of KAMPS, Professor Dr. Abdus Samad at a ceremony at the PBL head officein Dhaka.

Managing Director of Pubali Bank, Md. Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Directors and central leaders of KAMPS were also present on the occasion.

KAMPS, a voluntary organisation, has been running awareness raising, monitoring and screening services about Kidney diseases through organising camps, seminars, symposiums, workshops, roundtable meetings across the country.

KAMPS has already set up a Kidney Dialysis center at Tangail and Kidney screening and research centre in Dhaka through the support of philanthropic personalities, organisations and institutions.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22-Nov-12

BRUSSELS: Greece's international lenders failed for the second week running to agree how to get the country's debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go in six days' time.

After nearly 12 hours of talks through the night during which myriad options were discussed, euro zone finance ministers, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank failed to reach a consensus, without which emergency aid cannot be disbursed to Athens.

The IMF has so far refused to give Athens an extra two years to meet its debt target, while European governments led by Germany refuse to write off loans, two options which might make the targets easier to reach.

"We are close to an agreement but technical verifications have to be undertaken, financial calculations have to be made and it's really for technical reasons that at this hour of the day it was not possible to do it in a proper way and so we are interrupting the meeting and reconvening next Monday," Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters.

"There are no major political disagreements," he said. Nonetheless, the euro extended its fall against the dollar in response, and German bond futures were higher as investors were expected to rush into the safe haven.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said the lack of a debt deal between the country's lenders over technical reasons did not justify holding up aid needed to avert Greek bankruptcy. Greece's next big debt repayment is due in mid-December.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22-Nov-12

The Bangladesh Bank Wednesday issued a circular asking merchant banks and brokers to comply with margin-loan directives of the Securities and Exchange Commission in providing credit facilities to share investors.

The circular said all financial institutions and its subsidiary companies are directed to follow the SEC directives on margin loans issued on September 30, 2012.

The market regulator in the issued directives set the highest margin loan ratio for stock exchange members and merchant bankers.

According to the new margin loans ratio, the merchant bankers and the stock broker will be allowed to provide loans at 1:2 ratios till June 30, 2013. It means an investor will get loan of Tk 200 against his or her holding of securities worth Tk 100.

From July 1 to December 31, 2013, the margin loan ratio would be 1:1.5 and from January 1 to June 30 2014 it would be 1:1. The last limit that would start from July 1, 2014 would continue until further notice is 1:0.5.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22-Nov-12

The government is likely to seek over Tk 39.16 billion Export Credit Agency (ECA) loans from two multinational banks for setting up two gas-fired power plats to generate 675MW of electricity by early 2015.

The Power Division Sunday placed a proposal to the hard-term loan committee seeking government approval to mobilise the said amount to implement the 450MW Asuganj (south) combined-cycle power project and another 225MW Asuganj combined-cycle power project.

Two projects will be implemented by Asuganj Power Station Company Limited (APSCL) in 2015, APSCL Managing Director Md Nurul Alam told daily sun.

The APSCL will seek over Tk 25.18 billion loans from HSBC with an interest rate of 4.67 percent (all in cost) for implementing Asuganj project, he said.

It will also mobilise over Tk 13.97 billion from the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) at interest rate of 4.22 percent (all in cost) to set up Asuganj combine cycle power plant to generate 225MW of electricity, he added.

The Power Division now waits for mobilising fund for the two power projects, another official of Power Division said. “We will open Letter of Credit (LC’s) for imports of machinery within 15 days after signing the loan contracts,” he said.

In October, 2012, the APSCL, an enterprise of BPDB signed an agreement with Korean companies Hyundai Engineering Company Limited and Daewoo International Corporation to install the plant under ECA backed financing. The plant will be installed within 25 months.

In May, 2012, APSCL signed an agreement with a joint-venture formed by Inelectra International AB of Sweden and TSK Electronica Y Electricidad SA of Spain, to install the 450MW combined-cycle power plant run by natural gas at Ashuganj power station premises.

Under the contract, the Swedish and Spanish joint venture company would install the power plant in 27 months.

Ashuganj Power Company at present operates nine power plants with generation capacity of 777MW and de-rated capacity of 650MW of electricity.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22-Nov-12