Mutual Trust Bank Limited (MTB) has approved 10 percent stock dividend for its shareholders for the year 2013.

The announcement came at the 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank held at the Bashundhara Convention Center 2 in the city on Thursday.

Rashed A. Chowdhury, Chairman of the bank presided over the meeting.

The AGM approved stock dividend for the shareholders.

Syed Manzur Elahi, Founding Chairman, M. A. Rouf JP, Vice Chairman, Dr. Arif Dowla, Hedayetullah, Md. Abdul Malek, Md. Wakiluddin, Khwaja Nargis Hossain, QAFM Serajul Islam, Directors, Anwarul Amin, Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Independent Directors, Anis A. Khan, Managing Director and CEO, Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Director and Company Secretary and a large number of shareholders attended the meeting.

MTB Chairman hailed the shareholders for attending the AGM and thanked all including shareholders, customers, patrons, well-wishers, regulators, directors and staff for their support extended during the year.

In 2013, MTB earned net profit after tax amounting to Tk 573 million which was 74.84 percent higher than 2012 and the value of earning asset was Tk 85,323.09 million. The bank’s earning per share (EPS) grew to Tk 2.05 from Tk 1.17.

 BRAC Bank Limited has announced 10 percent cash and 10 percent stock dividends (bonus shares) for its shareholders for the year 2013.

The announcement came at the bank’s 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at BRAC-CDM at Savar in Dhaka on Thursday.

Chaired by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Chairman of BRAC Bank Limited, the meeting was attended, among others, by Directors Muhammad A. (Rumee) Ali, Shib Narayan Kairy, Tamara Hasan Abed, Dr. Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi, Zahida Ispahani, Managing Director and CEO Syed Mahbubur Rahman and Company Secretary Rais Uddin Ahmad.

Chairman of the bank informed the shareholders at the AGM that the bank earned Tk 5,925 million operating profit and Tk 1,246 million profit-after-tax during the year 2013.

Addressing the AGM, the bank’s Chairman expressed his gratitude to the shareholders, stakeholders and management for their continuous support to the company.

A large number of shareholders also attended the AGM. 

 ONE Bank will arrange syndicated finance worth Tk 2110 million for financing Argon Spinning Limited for setting up a specialized spinning mill.

M. Fakhrul Alam, Managing Director of ONE Bank Limited, and Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury, Managing Director of Argon Spinning Limited signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides in the city recently.

Other senior officials of both organizations were present on the occasion.

ONE Bank, a leading commercial bank of the country, being equipped with an experienced syndication unit has so far led a number of syndicated financing for the country’s leading business groups like BSRM, MI Cement, PRAN, Sinha, Sunman, Aman, Alltex and Northeast Medical.

Evince Group, a fastest growing business conglomerate of the country having concentration in textile and clothing has undertaken a specialized spinning mill at Hobigonj in the name of Argon Spinning Limited, mainly to meet its captive yarn requirement.

In this connection, they have mandated ONE Bank to act as Lead Arranger, Facility Agent and Security Agent of the proposed syndicated finance of Tk 2110 million for the project.

The project is expected to come into commercial operation by September 2015.

The World Bank on Wednesday projected that Bangladesh’s GDP growth would hit 11-year low to 5.4 per cent in the current fiscal year because of fallout from the political unrest in the first half of the year.
The WB said due to the political unrest in the run-up to the January 5 national elections country incurred a value added loss of $1.4 billion of which 86 per cent in the service sector, 11 per cent in the industry and the remaining 3 per cent in the agriculture.
The WB’s 5.4 per cent growth projection for the FY 2013-2014 is the lowest among the estimates made by the government, Bangladesh Bank and other international lenders for the 2013-14 financial year.
‘The loss [due to the political unrest] has reduced the growth rate from the 6.2 per cent benchmark to 5.4 per cent where service sector suffered the most because of weak consumption growth,’ WB Dhaka office lead economist Zahid Hussain said at a briefing at the bank’s office in the capital.
If the country achieved the WB-projected growth of 5.4 per cent, it would be the lowest since FY 2002-2003 when the economy grew by 5.26 per cent.
The government in the budget for the current fiscal year projected 7.2 per cent growth but brought down the target to 6.5 per cent last month.
The WB in October last year had projected the GDP growth at 5.7 per cent.
The Asian Development Bank last week also brought down its growth projection to 5.6 per cent from 5.8 per cent it had predicted in October last year.
Zahid said that most of the economic indicators suggested the growth would be slower in the current fiscal year.
Only power and export sectors witnessed improvement so far in the fiscal year but export growth is on the declining path, he said.
Besides, growth in production and investment-related imports was weak and the private sector credit growth was at historic low, said Zahid.
‘So there is declining remittance, garment sector image crisis, financial stress and disruption for political turmoil in the current fiscal year,’ he said.
He said the implementation of annual development programme was facing setback because of the political unrest.
‘The government has lowered the ADP size to $600 billion but I believe achieving $500 billion would be satisfactory in the current fiscal year,’ he said.
Zahid said the recent political calmness was good enough for trading or production activities.
‘But as the investment is a mid- and long-term issue, uncertainty is there,’ he said.
Asked whether all-party participatory polls would assure investors, Zahid said, ‘I will not comment about the elections. But stability is a must for economic growth.’
He said power and transport-related works should be priority at this moment.
‘Transport does not mean only the Padma bridge. Construction of the highways should also be given priority,’ he said. 
Zahid said the government should introduce ‘no power no payment’ for the rental power plants.
He said the government should emphasised on base-load power plant more and try to move from the rental solution.
‘The businessman will always try to maximise their profit and would try to continue that. But the policymakers should think the greater perspective while taking decision,’ he replied to the question whether the rental power plant owners are influencing government decision about base-load power plant. 
He said financial solvency of the Bangladesh Power Development Board would encourage investors.
He said the compliance issue in the garment sector would be crucial as some garment units were shut down, causing some unemployment.
‘The garment sector is going through a transitional period. But the economies of the US and the European Union are catching up which is a good news for us,’ he said.
He said the image crisis of the garment sector and the issue in the GCC labour market should be addressed with priority.
‘GDP growth could rise and stay above 6 per cent if monetary policy focuses growth than inflation. Tighter monitoring can prevent loan frauds,’ Zahid said.
WB acting country head Christine E Kimes and lead economist Salman Zaidi were also present on the occasion, among other.

Abdus Samad, Abdul Malek Mollah

Abdus Samad was re-elected Chairman of Executive Commitee of the Board of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited.
Abdul Malek Mollah was re-elected Vice-Chairman of the EC of the bank, said a press release.
They were reelected unanimously in the 255th meeting of the Board of Directors of the bank recently.

According to the decision of the meeting, they will continue responsibilities untill the next AGM of the bank.
Alhajj Abdus Samad is one of the founder directors of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd. He is the Vice Chairman of S. Alam Group, one of the largest industrial group of the country. He is the chairman of S. Alam Cold Rolld Steels Ltd.