Former Indo-Bangla Pharma director to sell off shares in conflict with current board
Failing to regain his seat on the board of Indo-Bangla Pharmaceuticals, its sponsor shareholder and former director, Bellal Khan, declared an end to his ties with the drugmaker.
He will sell his 3.03% stake in the company on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) block market, and Indo-Bangla's Managing Director AFM Anowarul Huq has declared he will buy those shares.
Contacted by phone, the businessman declined to comment on the issue.
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Earlier, another sponsor shareholder, Amin-Ur-Rashid, got rid of his holdings in the company as well on the same grounds.
A senior officer at the company said, Amin-Ur-Rashid and Bellal Khan wanted to be elected directors at a recently held annual general meeting, but the board did not give them that opportunity.
A former director of the company, seeking anonymity, said the current board has made the company family property by removing both of them from the board in fiscal 2018-19.
"We activated the company, which was once down, and also got it listed on the stock market," he added.
Indo-Bangla Pharma is one of the oldest drug producers in the country which started business in 1954 in Barishal as Indo-Pak Pharmaceuticals Works.
At present, its current Managing Director, AFM Anowarul Huq, operates the company with his mother and sisters, alleged the former director.
The Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) has a large number of shares in the company and it nominated a director to the board but the ICB director is not fully concerned in the pharma business, he added.
Upon a High Court order in 2017, the Drug Administration had suspended the company's antibiotic production licence.
The ban came after allegations of its production of substandard drugs were proven.
But in April last year, the Drug Administration lifted the ban following an appeal by the company.
In the first three quarters of fiscal 2021-22, its revenue dropped 27% to Tk43.52 crore, and net profits also decreased by 20% to Tk7.16 crore, compared to the previous year in the same quarter.
The company paid 4% in cash and 3% in stock dividends to its shareholders for FY21.
The last closing price of the company's shares was Tk16.9 each on Thursday at the DSE.
