Yeakin Polymer loses Tk2cr on ‘inexplicable spendings’ in Q3 FY22

In the third quarter of FY22, Yeakin Polymer incurred a loss of around Tk2.98 crore as it spent over Tk4 crore on production and other expenses and earned Tk2 crore, according to its financial report.

However, it is not clear how the company could spend Tk4 crore as it has been claiming to suffer from a working capital crisis for the last four years. The loss was also surprising because the company made a high amount of profit in the second quarter of FY22.

On condition of anonymity, a top official at a brokerage firm told TBS that Yeakin Polymer itself had admitted to the stock exchange that it could not run its factory due to a lack of working capital. But their financial statements say something different.

Therefore, the regulatory body should closely examine the company's activities to find out if they are committing any corruption and to ensure transparency, he said.

Although the company made huge losses in the third quarter of FY22, the company's profit for the first nine months of that fiscal stood at Tk1.26 crore. It was still a profit-making company due to the high profits it posted in the September-December quarter of FY22.

Yeakin Polymer showed massive growth in its revenue and profits after its stock market listing in 2016. The Satkhira-based company had raised Tk20 crore through its initial public offering.

But after two years of its listing, the company's business started to decline partly because of the government's policy decision to promote jute sacks over polymer ones, the company mentioned in its annual report.

Earlier, sources told The Business Standard that the company went off production before the pandemic because of loan defaults with the Islami Bank Bangladesh.

The company, however, hid this information from its shareholders and continued to publish revenue and profit or loss figures.

Also, its statutory auditor did not speak a single word regarding the layoff in the company's recent annual reports.

Yet, the stock market speculators were found to be very active in trading Yeakin's shares.

In just nine weeks till 9 February this year, its stock price rose by 150% to over Tk25 per share from Tk10.

Currently, its share is being traded at Tk23.30 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has recently allowed Kapita Packaging to take over Yeakin Polymer shares at a face value of Tk10 each.

Meanwhile, the entrepreneurs and directors of Yeakin Polymer wanted to sell their shares and Kapita Packaging Solutions Limited has expressed interest in buying that.

According to the share purchase agreement between the two parties that was approved by the BSEC, Kapita Packaging will buy out 30.114% shares from the sponsor-directors of Yeakin Polymer.

However, after the share transfer, the concerned entities will again have the shares blocked so that the new owner cannot sell them without prior regulatory approval.

Yeakin owes nearly Tk34 crore to various lenders and the company's outgoing sponsor-directors must obtain no-objection certificates (NOCs) from those lenders.

After the share transfer is completed, Kapita Packaging will nominate its directors for the new board, and welcome other shareholders to the board if they have at least a 2% stake in the company.

It will also ensure the resumption of production within two months and further take care of its dues.