Mustafa Anwar, immediate past chairman and a sponsor of Islami Bank Bangladesh, yesterday announced to sell off 40 lakh shares out of his total holdings of 42.26 lakh in the bank.

“I am selling the shares for personal reasons. I have taken on a new business project, for which I need money,” Anwar told The Daily Star over telephone.

The price of 40 lakh shares would be Tk 14.04 crore on the basis of the last traded price of Tk 35.1 per share.

Anwar became the chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh in June 2015 as a representative of Ibn Sina Trust, a sponsor shareholder of the bank.

He was replaced in January this year by Arastoo Khan, a former bureaucrat.

Anwar is the chairman of Birds Group, which has concerns in the apparel, construction, IT and agro sectors.

Islami Bank Bangladesh was established in 1983 as the country's first Islamic bank with around 70 percent foreign shareholdings.

The bank has declared only 10 percent cash dividend for 2016, down from 20 percent in the previous year.

Earnings per share of the bank stood at Tk 2.78 for the year that ended on December 31, 2016, up from Tk 2.12 a year earlier.

Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah; Kuwait Finance House; Jordan Islamic Bank; Islamic Investment and Exchange Corporation, Qatar; Bahrain Islamic Bank; Al-Rajhi Company for Currency Exchange and Commerce; Sheikh Ahmed Salah Jamjoom, Jeddah; Fouad Abdulhameed Al-Khateeb (late); Dubai Islamic Bank, and the Ministry of Awqaf And Islamic Affairs Kuwait were the foreign sponsors of the bank. Of them, Dubai Islamic Bank sold off its entire shares in 2015.